Chaos SEED
by Gideon020
Summary: Lets see if we can't give Ranma a second chance at being a hero. How? Why give him a gundam of course. Note: Gundam buffs should suspend their disbelief at the introduction of certain mecha.
1. Chapter 0

Chaos SEED

A Gundam SEED/Ranma 1.5 crossover

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Beta-reading and editing credit to: Light02, Dark Magic LacusClyne, and AegisKage

Chapter Zero: Prelude to chaos! Genma's Mistake!

Sometime, Someplace 

"Gentlemen, is the mobile suit my superior requested ready for use?" This question came from a dark haired Caucasian man in an immaculate black suit that looked decidedly out of place amongst the various construction machines, partially constructed mobile suits, workers, soldiers and scientists in the facility.

In front of him were several men in white coats standing in front of a recessed portion of the facility floor, overlooking a fully equipped mobile suit being placed through final testing. One of the scientists, an elderly man with goggles and a cybernetic arm turned at the question as his colleagues continued to direct the testing, "The mobile suit will be ready within minutes, we're completing the final tests now."

A glance was spared at the mobile suit as it suddenly transformed into a hunched humanoid figure then back into an upright form, "There, all done. I hope your superior appreciates the time we spent on this project, making a fully armed Gundam for absolutely no reason, even if the technology you provided has proven fascinating to work with…"

The Man In Black cut off the scientist with a wave, "Doctor, my superior has requested this mobile suit built and if it is completed according to the design plans, given parts and technology, and the data provided then you will receive your payment for services rendered and I will take delivery of this unit for my superior's operations."

By now the other men had turned to regard him and one, a thin man with a long nose and mushroom-shaped hair spoke up, "What exactly are the operations your superior has planned?" The Man In Black simply shrugged, "I am only told what I am required to know, nothing more. My superior only releases information that is of use to me, and maintains a strict policy of secrecy for security reasons."

A glance at his watch, "And now gentlemen, if you'll kindly have the Gundam loaded onto the transport we can arrange for your payment as per the negotiated contract."

The white-coated men glanced at each other for a brief moment and nodded, the 'Doctor' now speaking for them, "The Gundam will be loaded within the hour onto your transport, but only when payment has been confirmed." The Man In Black smiled.

* * *

_Another time, another place_

The room was cloaked in darkness as a group of men hidden by the shadows fixed their gaze squarely on the Man In Black seated before them. One spoke, his dress denoting a high-ranking military member, "And if this program you propose is successful?"

The Man In Black took on a noncommittal expression and shrugged, "Then your future Gundam pilots will be unstoppable." The men all turned and began conversing in hushed voices as the Man In Black calmly awaited their decision.

After several minutes, they turned to the Man In Black and the officer spoke again, apparently being designated the negotiator, "We at Blue Cosmos accept your proposal and the data being offered with it. We will still need a test subject though, one we can train from a young age with a decent level of physical fitness."

The Man In Black smiled, "You'll have one in six years if you follow the outlined timetable."

* * *

_Out Of Time, Out Of Place_

A young man was casually typing at a laptop computer when the phone rang. Stopping his work the young man picked up the cordless receiver and began studying what he had typed down, "Hello…Ah, its you, is everything ready? Good…Excellent…Superb job Agent Smith, I'll have everything sent immediately."

With a soft beep the call ended as the young man brought up two windows on his laptop screen and regarded them side-by-side.

One was of the Gundam built by the scientists in the mysterious facility, the other was obviously from an anime as it showed a still image of a teenage boy wearing Chinese silks and hair done in a pigtail while under it was another image of a short, buxom, red-headed teenage girl.

Slowly, a smile developed on the face of the young man as he brought the document he had been typing up and began typing with renewed intensity, "Now then Mr. Saotome, let us rekindle the sparks of nobility that will burn in your soul. Let us give you a weapon and the means to wield it. Let us give you a second chance at being the hero you deserve to be. Let us place shadows for you to overcome. Let us give you a war so that you may learn about, adapt to and cherish life and love."

If one looked at the young man now, a glow could be seen in his left eye as he said this, and as he typed the glow brightened.

* * *

_Japan, location unknown_

Genma Saotome was drunk and when Genma was drunk it tended to mean a lot of things would happen to Ranma his son, bad things. Now Genma didn't beat Ranma when he was drunk, he was actually quite docile when liquored up but the damage to Ranma came when a person mentioned anything concerning Martial Arts or Marriage in earshot.

This was the situation right now, Genma had heard a man in a dark suit speaking about 'special training' and 'needing recruits' while plastered and had immediately sobered up enough to initiate 'intelligent' conversation with the man. Little did he know it would be the greatest mistake any version of Genma had undertaken.

"Excuse me, sir" The suit turned to regard a fat, glasses wearing man with a handkerchief tied around his head as Genma made his mistake, "I couldn't help overhearing you needing recruits for special training."

The suit nodded as the information he had been given clicked in his mind, "That's right, we need a young volunteer to participate in a prototype training regimen to see if we can train test pilots for mobile armor and mobile suits. If you have a son or daughter, we would pay you a fee of forty-five hundred US Dollars for as long as it takes to conduct the training."

Genma's eyes lit up at mention of the money, 'Forty-five hundred American Dollars! The boy will be giving me an early retirement after all, and to think I was going to teach him that idiotic Cat-Fist technique!' _In far off dimensions, several versions of Genma sneezed._

As Genma's mind began playing with what he could buy with all that money the suit smiled calmly as he pulled out a contract, "If you do have a son or daughter, simply sign on the marked lines and take the child to this location to receive your money and hand over the child…"

The suit didn't have time to blink as the document was snatched out of his hand, signed without even being glanced at, and shoved back at him. The suit could then only blink in amazement as Genma rushed out, then looked at the document in his hands and sighed, 'This had better be worth it. Six years and we still don't have the pilot promised by that man.'

Sparing a last glance at Genma's dust trail, the suit took out a cell phone and called his superiors. At the sparse camp he shared with his father, young Ranma shivered in his sleep.

* * *

"Now boy, when you get to the training center, I want you to do everything the instructors tell you and don't ask stupid questions, got that?" As dawn heralded a new day, Genma was giving his son last minute instructions before he was taken to participate in the training.

Genma, being the fool that he was never once considered he might never see his son again, so the only thought he had in his empty head was, 'I should make sure the boy doesn't screw this up for me.' That one thought of greed and avarice would save Ranma's life.

As this was taking place, Ranma's fate was being decided in a secure conference room. "So the child we were promised has been delivered finally. And apparently right on time if the schedule can be believed."

A lanky, white-haired man in a medical uniform spoke this as he regarded the data on one Ranma Saotome displayed on a screen, "Hard to think that this child will be capable of surviving what's already been laid out thanks to the previous subjects."

The doctor turned to a man in the shadows, "Wouldn't you say so Major?" A military officer stepped out of the shadows and regarded the data, "Put him through the full program. The physical training followed by the drug treatments, and then end it with the two-stage re-education program. Make sure that nothing goes wrong; Chairman Azrael has made it clear that this project will be scrapped if anything happen to the test subject."

With that the officer left the room as the doctor walked to a wall phone and dialed an extension, "Inform Doctor Ono that he may proceed with the physical training, and inform the re-education division to prepare the first stage." As the doctor prepared to leave the room he glanced back at the screen as it changed from Ranma's personal data to a stylized image of Earth, "For a blue and pure world."

* * *

_Four weeks later_

Genma Saotome was running for his life, a situation that one would call normal if you ignored the helicopters and barking dogs leading teams of heavily armed soldiers. But these wouldn't be ignored, just like what Genma saw inside that 'training center' and held in his arms could never be forgotten.

Genma had noticed that the money stopped coming after the eighth day, and concerned that his 'foolish idiot son' had done something to screw up, decided to find out what was going on. It had taken four weeks of following unmarked convoys and avoiding heavily armed patrols until Genma had come across his goal, a facility deep in the Japanese forests under heavy guard.

It had been child's play to hide from the patrols and penetrate the facility, but it was inside the facility that Genma finally realized that he had indeed made a terrible mistake. Genma had entered the facility through a morgue since it had the lightest security and had immediately made a horrifying discovery, the corpses of children contained within hundreds of body bags marked for incineration.

Soon after Genma found the records room and found the schedule for his son; Special Forces level training in close combat techniques and weapons, along with constant, rigorous VR simulations had seen normal at first, then he found reports on treatments using a combat drug called 'XNS-47' to 'complement his already superb reflexes with increased spatial awareness and mitigate the effects of battlefield stress' a sign that they planned to or had already made his son dependant on the substance.

The final report made his blood run cold, "Kami-sama…What have I done?" The report fluttered to floor, showing a final confirmation for Ranma's second-stage re-education, Genma had to find his son fast! Several minutes later, alarms screamed around the base.

The alarms had all but faded as Genma waited for the helicopters to return to base and the patrols to leave the area. As the sound of voices, heavy boots and dogs faded into the distance Genma turned to his son, who was now shuddering violently. 'The drug is wearing off, and he'll wake up soon. There's only one thing to do.'

Genma had memorized all of the reports concerning the drug treatments and re-education procedures during his search in the records room. With that knowledge in hand, Genma began applying a series of pressure points; a point to block all memory of the training and the day before he sent Ranma to go with those monsters, another to mitigate the effects of the reported drug withdrawal symptoms by constant minute adrenal stimulation. By now Ranma had stopped shuddering but his eye was twitching noticeably as Genma prepared the final pressure point, one to block the mental effects of the brainwashing.

As thunder rumbled in the dark sky Genma was already heading towards the nearest port, the knowledge of what he had discovered and allowed would stay with him forever but for his son's sake he would play the fool.

Genma Saotome was a fool, but it didn't mean he was a monster.

* * *

_Nerima, Tokyo, one week after the failed wedding, two days after the Tragedy of Copernicus._

Ranma sat on the roof of the Tendo Dojo staring at the stars; towards areas of the sky he knew somehow that a space colony was located there. 'Man, it doesn't let up. Fiancées coming at me left and right, Pops and Mr. Tendo keep harping on about the schools, rivals keep hounding me, and Akane…'

Unfortunately, that thought couldn't be finished as he noticed a black car and two vans pull into the front of the dojo. Genma was playing shoji with Soun when a knock at the door caught his attention and he listened in case it was another fiancée for him to pass off to his son. It wasn't.

"Hello there, how can I help you?" Kasumi. "My name is Colonel Winters…" Winters, where had he heard that name before? "…here on a matter regarding a Genma Saotome and his son Ranma." Winters! The CO of the training facility! They had found Ranma!

Colonel Winters had a friendly smile on his face as he entered the living room of the Tendo Dojo; his bodyguard of soldiers kept a close eye on the surroundings when one signaled him out of the corner of his eye and motioned to the door. Blue eyes met steel gray as Winters addressed Ranma, "Are you Ranma Saotome?" Ranma blinked; so far the guy didn't seem dangerous so why was he setting off his danger sense and why was he so familiar? "Yeah, I'm Ranma Saotome. What do you want with me and Pops?"

Winters' smile increased as he spoke, "Some time ago, your father entered into a contract where you would receive special close combat training for a payment of forty-five hundred American dollars." this earned a snort and a muttered "Baka Oyaji" from Ranma as Winters continued, "However, your father took you before we could finish the training and now we have come to," a thoughtful expression came to Winters' face, "finish the job so to speak."

Ranma was about to retort to that when Genma appeared, looking uncharacteristically (to the Nerima residents in the room that is) grim, "I took my son from your training facility because I was unsatisfied with what he was being taught. As such I will not be allowing him to return."

Winters' smile dimmed slightly as his bodyguards tensed, "Surely you can understand that it is necessary to complete Ranma's training. After all, you can understand that incomplete knowledge is nothing compared to having full knowledge of the training." Ranma was going to say something when Genma cut him off, "Ranma will not be returning with you, and I will make sure of that."

Winters' smile became tense as his bodyguards began raising their weapons, "Surely we can come to some form of agreement…" His statement was cut off as one of his bodyguards suddenly went flying out the door, Genma calmly lowering his fist, "There is nothing more to say Colonel Winters, you won't have Ranma again."

This calm statement brought curious thoughts from Ranma, 'Again? I don't remember taking part in any military training. Did I?' As Genma faced off against the Colonel, Winters folded his hands behind his back and thumbed the safety off his sidearm, "I'm sorry you feel that way Genma Saotome. So, no hard feelings?" Just as he said that Winters whipped his sidearm out and fired at Ranma, at that close range not even the younger Saotome would not be able to dodge in time.

Genma Saotome was a fool, but even he knew the meaning of a noble sacrifice. Little did he know the effect of his sacrifice on his son's mind. As the bullet traveled towards Ranma, Genma dove in front of the 10mm round.

The bullet hit his shoulder, but the moment Frost fired his bodyguards had also fired their carbines at Ranma, sending hundreds of subsonic 5.45x39mm rounds into his head, chest and limbs and shredding his internal organs. By the time the carbines clicked empty, Genma's body was unidentifiable as it collapsed backwards in front of Ranma. Genma Saotome was a fool, a drunkard, and a dishonorable lout. But he loved his son.

"Pops?" Ranma was in shock, he had just witnessed his father, a man who would more likely hide than confront anyone, sacrifice himself to save his life. As the soldiers started to approach, a twitch began in Ranma's left eye and continued for several seconds as the soldiers drew closer. Just as suddenly the twitch stopped and Ranma's eyes narrowed.

Nerima suddenly came alive to the sound of gunfire and screams from the Tendo Dojo; sadly they were ignored, the locals long having been inured to violence in the area. Those who did call the police were too late to save the soldiers killed 'in an forced act of lethal self-defense caused by the unprovoked hostile actions of a military officer', in the lead investigating officer's words.

Two people from the Blue Cosmos recovery group would survive; an unnamed private who later died from his injuries and was posthumously blamed and dishonorably discharged for firing the first shot, and a young Atlantic Federation Colonel named Christopher Winters who was transferred to the Earth Alliance 81st Independent Mobile Battalion.

Two weeks and five days later Ranma Saotome would register at an Earth Alliance OMNI Enforcer East Asia Sector recruitment office on the day of the Bloody Valentine Incident.

_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One: False Peace. An overture of blood cometh!

_Orb Union Neutral Colony Heliopolis, January 25th Cosmic Era_

"Jeez this is boring!" These words came from a ponytailed young man as he wandered around the streets of the Heliopolis colony, seemingly without direction as he looked from a map to the street signs. As he wandered down the streets, Ranma Saotome decided to once again to think about the trials his life had continued giving him.

'Shimatta, first that time when I had to leave Nerima for no reason.' Ranma had no idea why he had to leave Nerima, or why he had woken up inside Doctor Tofu's clinic after he blacked out. Supposedly he killed people, Nabiki even got footage of the massacre. But Ranma denied it, saying he had blacked out and couldn't have done that, it wasn't done in Anything-Goes. He still had to leave, everyone agreed on that.

So one day he was given a bundle of money, his backpack fully stocked, a number of recently made identity paper courtesy of Nabiki and told to get out before more soldiers came. Over two weeks later he registered at a recruitment office under the false name of Leo Kaji. A smile came to Ranma's face as he remembered Cologne's parting gift to him.

* * *

"Son-In-Law, I need to have a word with you." Ranma had come to the Nekohanten after waking up from the black out and receiving a message from a grim Mousse, and upon entering was taken straight to Cologne's room for 'a private discussion'.

"Son-In-Law…" Here Cologne chuckled at some hidden joke, "you have certainly made things interesting while we were here. And you have aided our people in a time of great need, so I have decided to declare you untouchable and therefore invalid for any Kisses or Amazon challenges."

To say Ranma was surprised was an understatement, and it took several minutes before he could bring himself to ask, "Why?" At this Cologne cackled heartily.

"Why, Ranma? Why do this? Simple. You're going to need all the tools you can get your hands on before you leave, because I have sensed another's hand at work here. As though someone is guiding your path and has been doing so for sometime, as if preparing you to leave."

_In another dimension, the author sneezed, and then chuckled. "You don't know the half of it you old voodoo doll. Heh, and the fun and games are only starting."_

"Because of this interference Ranma, I have something that will serve you infinitely." At this Cologne pulled out of her robes a sparkling blue gemstone affixed to the center of a platinum pendant. "This is the Eye Of Poseidon, an artifact that negates all water-based magic and acts as a means of finding drinkable water and detecting tainted liquids such as poisoned drinks. Useful if you don't know what you're drinking. Keep it safe Ranma, it is the only one of its kind."

Ranma nodded and placed the pendant into his stuff-space, then was suddenly hit by bucket of ice-cold water, "What the hell was that for you dried up mummy!" Cologne simply smiled.

"Check your appearance." Ranma looked and saw…nothing. No breasts, no reduction in height, no killer curves, just that he was… "A man! WOOOOO! This is the greatest day of my life!" At this jubilant declaration Cologne was treated to a strange sight, the 'I'm never gonna be a girl again' dance. A sharp crack to the head stopped that cold.

* * *

As Ranma was wandering the city, two ships quietly drifted behind an asteroid near the colony. The Nazca-class battleship _Vesalius_ and Laurasia-class battleship _Gamow_ quietly powered down their engines and waited. On board the _Vesalius_ a masked man was conversing with the captain in front of a monitor, "These are the prototype mobile suits the Alliance has stored at the Heliopolis Colony Morgenroete Facility. The Aegis, Strike, Duel, Buster and Blitz Gundams." As the masked man spoke, schematics of the different mobile suits appeared onscreen; "These mobile suits are supposedly the ground work for proposed mass production. Thusly, our mission is to steal these prototypes."

Captain Frederik Ades was skeptical however, "Just how do you propose we steal these mobile suits? A full-frontal attack would surprise them I agree, but the pilots will still have time to man the suits and engage us. I'm not sure our GINN's will be able to stand up to them." However, the masked man smiled.

"The GINN's at your command are to serve as both diversion and assault force with the _Gamow _in support should they need the firepower. My squad will infiltrate the colony with the strike force assigned to cripple the _Archangel_, and then take the mobile suits in the confusion. In and out, with little chance of failure." The masked man seemed confident in his plan, but Captain Ades was still doubtful.

"I'm still not sure about this, but will follow my part of the plan to full effect. Commander Le Creuset." Rau Le Creuset nodded and left the room, leaving Captain Ades to give the order for the final deployment checks on the GINN's.

* * *

Ranma stared up at the Morgenroete research area's security fence, then leapt over it while starting the Umi-Sen-Ken, becoming invisible as he landed softly on the tarmac. Whisper-quiet, Ranma began running towards the place marked on his map.

In another area of the research facility two technicians were standing near a sealed door; one was a black man typing furiously at the access panel while a blond-haired, tanned man with a gun kept an eye at the corridor leading to the door. "Where the hell is Leo? He was supposed to be here by now!" The man with the gun was fidgeting in a paranoid fashion as he glanced nervously back at the technician at the door.

"Shut the hell up will you? I'm trying to get this friggin' door open and your twitchin' trigger finger ain't helping any more than your damn whining. So please, just SHUT UP!" As the second technician finished his rant, Ranma a.k.a. 'Leo' appeared from the air in front of them.

"And here I thought you two couldn't get any louder. I had to knock out three security guards and disable their radios before I got here, and I did it by following your voices. You two should have been sent to Signal Corps, not Recon." At this the two technicians jerked and whirled around to face Leo.

"Dammit! Leo you bastard, can't you ever use a damn radio once in a while!" shouted the twitchy technician. Leo smirked.

"I did, 'cept that this area has a large jamming field around it to prevent detection by conventional scanners, and it blocks our radios. Didn't Commander-sama tell you that in the briefing?" The two men across from him had the decency to look embarrassed. "I thought so. Jacob-san, is the door open?"

Jacob Oslo grinned as he pressed a button and the door locks popped off, the servos squealing in protest after many years of disuse as it slowly rumbled open.

Then he became serious, "Crewman 1st Class Leo Kaji, your portion of the mission is to investigate this unmarked area of the Morgenroete Research Area. Your objectives are to secure whatever may be inside the main hanger area of this sector while we secure a transport to deliver it to the _Archangel_ and then back to Panama to hand over to the brass."

He pulled out a 12mm pistol and screwed a silencer onto the barrel, "I know you're deadly enough with your fists, but make sure your sidearm is loaded and the silencer fixed on just in case." A glance at the relaxed technician, "You ready Carlson?"

Carlson Rogers nodded as he checked his gun and moved to cover Leo and Jacob as the three men moved across the threshold and into the originally sealed area. When they were nearly at the access to the hanger he spoke up, "What do you suppose they got in here? The security getting here was pretty tight, even more than what the prototypes have." Leo shrugged.

"Beats me, though these signs seem to indicate some sort of hanger for storing large cargo. Maybe there's a mobile suit in here? A really secret one that Orb's been developing?" Jacob shrugged as he began hacking the lock.

"Dunno. Might even be part of the old ZAFT facility that used to be here before they pulled out when the war started. Heard from some of the cryptographers who made the maps that they were testing some sort of prototype Nuclear-powered MS here. Wonder if they got past the problem of the N-Jammer fields?"

As he finished, the magnetic door locks popped off with a loud bang and the access pad chimed once as the old door opened with a grinding moan causing the three men to wince. "Jeez, hope no one noticed that." The rumble that followed caused them to look at each other. "Now what?"

* * *

The GINN's launched from the _Vesalius_ began firing the moment they landed, tossing MS grenades with their free hands as their machineguns cut into Earth Alliance infantry and artillery. Nearby a discovery had occurred.

"You're a girl?" Kira Yamato was a little surprised at this, he had thought Cagalli was boy from the way he...no she had moved and behaved. "What are you doing here?" Cagalli glanced back at him.

"I'm here to confirm something." With that the way back was suddenly blocked by falling debris and Kira was forced to make a decision. "Come on, we'll head to the factory and find a shelter there." Cagalli nodded and continued to the factory area of the Morgenroete facility.

The two teens managed to avoid debris and found themselves near several large mobile suits. Upon seeing them Kira was amazed but heard Cagalli shout out, "Father you traitor! Why did you let them?" Kira then saw someone aim a gun at them, "Get down!" and tackled Cagalli.

* * *

Inside the abandoned section, Jacob and Carlson frantically tried to get a nearby truck started up but Leo was distracted. The three of them had run inside the hanger looking for an escape route when the attack began but Leo had felt a twinge on his senses and turned to face a recessed section of floor.

"Leo?" Carlson saw Ranma slowly walk to the recessed area, almost mesmerized. Carlson quickly turned to Jacob, "Jay! I think Leo's twitching out!" Jacob froze, "Oh no."

Jacob Oslo and Carlson Rogers had been to Ranma/Leo what Daisuke and Hiroshi had been, friends. But they also knew the truth about Leo's humiliating 'blackouts'.

Back in training they had occasionally seen Leo suddenly twitching around his left eye and his hands would shake violently before it stopped just as suddenly. When it stopped Leo was like a monster, taking out targets on the firing range and simulators like a seasoned veteran. But when he stopped, Leo would always have a confused look on his face as he asked the instructor when the simulation had begun.

The doctors had discovered that Leo had been going through most of his life on a constant adrenaline high, so much and for so long that his body couldn't function without it. When Leo had the seizures, it was during stressful and intense moments where an adrenaline surge should have occurred. Instead the adrenal gland simply shut down and Leo would rapidly experience withdrawal symptoms in the form of noticeable eye twitching and shaking in his hands.

This should have been the be all and end all but the base psychologist had also confirmed severe mental damage due to his violent upbringing and life as a martial artist resulting in a type of 'alternate personality' where Leo would black out during a seizure but a new persona would emerge and begin attacking any hostile target, sometimes with lethal force. It was a fact all who trained with Leo were made aware of, except for Leo.

Jacob quickly hotwired the truck and turned to shout to Leo to get in, except that Leo wasn't there. He turned to Carlson, "Carl! Where did you last see Leo?" Carlson made to point at the recessed section when a hum like an elevator sounded and made Jacob turn with Carlson to stare at the recessed area.

* * *

Leo stared at the massive machine in a dazed awe, his eye was twitching violently and his hands shaking even more so but the ronin Saotome didn't seem to notice as he leapt down and landed in front of the head. Leo felt as though he watching another person but memorized the opening of the hatch to the cockpit, felt himself sit in the chair and be gently lowered into a small cockpit area where several blinking lights came to life.

Leo watched and felt as though he had done this before, like he had done this for weeks yet it was his first time. Suddenly the panels, keypads, joysticks, and displays sprang to life as a loading sequence came to screen and displayed the OS. Outside, a black/green color scheme appeared with red highlights.

At the same time Kira Yamato and an Earth Alliance officer named Murrue Ramius had entered the Strike Gundam and Kira watched as the loading screen displayed the OS.

* * *

_Kira:_

**MOBILE SUIT OPERATION SYSTEM**

**/Version NV8 - N099/**  
**G**eneral  
**U**nilateral  
**N**euro - Link  
**D**ispersive  
**A**utonomic  
**M**aneuver  
**G.U.N.D.A.M Synthesis System**

**O.M.N.I. Enforcer**

**GAT-X105 Strike**

_Ranma/Leo:_

**MOBILE SUIT NEO OPERATION SYSTEM**

**G**eneration  
**U**nrestricted

**N**uclear-  
**D**euterium

**A**ssault  
**M**obile Suit

**G.U.N.D.A.M OS**  
**Ver.2.5.3 Rev.07**

**CGMF-XN24N Chaos**

**

* * *

**

With the sound of hissing gas in their ears, Jacob and Carlson silently agreed to make sure Leo didn't see them as hostile and started up the truck, driving onto the elevator as it began rising to the surface.

Murrue Ramius broke the final restraints on the Strike Gundam and brought it to stand, the light of the colony shining behind it.

Another dimension 

The author smiled, "Good luck Leo Kaji. Much is stake, though you and Kira Yamato will surely survive so long as allies are at your side."

Leo Kaji finally blacked out, another personality opened cold cobalt-blue eyes. The soldier had woken once more.

_To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Its name is Gundam. Chaos and Strike!

Concealed Elevator, Morgenroete facility abandoned sector 

Carlson carefully opened the hatch into the truck's trailer and gasped, "Jay, there's a whole command center in here!" Jacob looked around Carlson and he nodded as he saw the vast amount of electronic equipment.

"There's probably a comms system linked to the Mobile Suit that Leo's piloting. See if you can get through to him; make something up if he's twitched out." Carlson nodded and climbed into the trailer. Just as the elevator reached the surface, and into a war zone.

As this was going on Kira Yamato took the controls of the Strike Gundam and pushed away the GINN that had knocked him and the EA officer into a building, and made a quick modification to the OS of the mecha.

Inside the GINN, Miguel Aiman swore as he prepared to fire his machinegun when his alert indicator went off and he twisted his GINN at an extreme angle to avoid three lances of beam energy, one shearing off the head fin. He turned at the exact same moment the Strike did to see something that made his jaw drop.

* * *

A mobile suit stood behind a command vehicle; gleaming green, and black armor with red trim in places shone in the light as it lowered a large rifle. Inside the mobile suit, the soldier began rapidly searching his MS's combat dictionary for identification. It pinged as it identified one as 'unrecognized', while the rest came up under **ZGMF-1017 GINN.** The soldier keyed in the GINN's as hostiles and awaited orders.

Inside the truck, Carlson had succeeded in getting through to Leo. And it was obvious that the ponytailed Japanese had 'gone commando', a term used between Jacob and Carlson to describe the way Leo acted after 'twitching out'. "Leo! Can you hear me? Acknowledge this transmission if you receive it."

The soldier keyed the comms, "Transmission acknowledged. Requesting orders." Carlson blinked and quickly thought up orders as the battle raged around them. 'We need to get to the _Archangel_, so I better tell him to keep these bastards of our backs.'

"Leo, we need you to escort this vehicle to the battleship _Archangel_. You are ordered to use all necessary force in clearing the way. Secure aid from anyone fighting the ZAFT forces and clear the area." The soldier nodded and after a moment's deliberation, decided to designate itself as 'Leo'.

"Confirmed, launching now." With a roar the Gundam rocketed into the air and opened fire on several GINN's with its beam rifle, blasting one of them apart. As the Gundam fired on enemy forces, the two boosters suddenly detached and flew around the mecha firing a mixture of beam cannon shots, and missiles as flaps opened and barrels extended.

* * *

The sudden entrace of a new combatant sent the ZAFT mobile suits into chaos as they tried to attack the mysterious unit. But the pods intercepted many of them and they had to pull back under a scathing hail of beam energy, "That thing's a monster! Where did it come from?" screamed one of the pilots as he tried to get past another barrage of beam energy.

"I don't know, but we should send a signal to Commander Rauaaaaaagh!" A GINN pilot was slashed in half by the mystery unit's shield as it rocketed off the left arm and into the mobile suit, neatly slicing it in two. Another GINN was blasted apart as the shield suddenly fired machineguns from two apertures. Two more fell as a salvo of beam energy riddled them full of holes while another unlucky pilot was incinerated as several missiles tore up his GINN.

The soldier aimed and fired, evading where required to avoid getting hit by his own pods, cobalt-blue eyes watching enemy after enemy die without compassion or mercy, no wasted energy in his movements.

Kira quickly joined the fray and destroyed a GINN coming up behind the mystery unit. The black and green mobile suit turned to regard him briefly before turning back to the battle raging around them as Kira tried to contact it.

"Hey! Hey, can you hear me? Hello? Hello!" Static met Kira's repeated attempts to hail the mobile suit as unknown to him, N-Jammer signals had been used to block communications from his mobile suit.

His unit had tapped the enemy communications and he listened to panicked cries and screams that suddenly cut out as a mobile suit exploded. Suddenly, the mobile suit with the damaged fin fired a flare and the enemy began to withdraw.

"We have to pull out! That thing's a monster! We have to AAAAAAAGH!" Miguel Aiman cursed as another pilot was blasted apart, and fired a signal flare to withdraw. Silently he vowed revenge against the pilot of the black and green mobile suit as he rocketed away with the remnants of what had been an assault force of ZAFT's finest.

Within minutes the assault force was pulling out as Leo silently tracked the hostile suits. He was about to follow the command vehicle when a transmission reached him.

* * *

While this was going on, Jacob put the truck into gear and floored the accelerator. The truck tires squealed as it lurched forwards, tossing Carlson into one of the seats. The blond struggled with the seat restraints for several seconds and pulled himself to the hatch so he could shout at Jacob.

"Dammit Jay! What the hell are you doing?" Shouted the irate soldier as Jacob put the truck into a tight turn. "CRAAAAAAAP! Slow down you crazy bastard!" A section of road decided to explode behind the truck, lifting the rear up several centimeters, "SPEED UP! SPEED UP YOU CRAZY BASTARD!" In the truck cab, Jacob smirked.

"Never could make up his mind that boy." As he said this he saw Leo taking apart the attacking mobile suits until another mobile suit blasted a GINN coming behind Leo. Jacob watched as the other mobile suit began helping Leo beat back the GINN's using knives and a machinegun.

'One of the prototypes' realized Jacob as he tilted his head to shout back to Carlson, "Tell Leo to recover any Alliance personnel and civilians while we head to the docks and board the _Archangel_! Carlson nodded and began sending the message to Leo as he landed near the prototype.

Leo regarded the mobile suit that supported him with calm eyes as he watched the scene on the ground unfold. 'My orders are to recover that officer and the civilians. I will complete those orders.' Out loud the soldier simply stated, "Orders confirmed" and prepared to key the external speakers when an explosion tore a hole into the colony.

* * *

_Several minutes earlier_

Mu La Flaga scoured the colony exterior for an access point when he felt a twinge at the back of his mind, "Huh? He's here? Where?" At that moment he put his Moebius Zero into a fast spin and spun it 180 degrees as machinegun fire raked the colony exterior. A mobile suit appeared out of the darkness.

"It's been too long Mu La Flaga, I was beginning to think you retired." Rau Le Creuset increased power to his CGUE's thrusters and rocketed after the nimble mobile armor, firing his shield's 28mm Vulcan cannon as he went.

"I was just going on vacation and decided to visit this space colony, Rau Le Creuset. In fact I decided to wait and see if you would show up today and what do you know? You showed up." Mu fired his Linear Gun and quickly detached the gunbarrel pods, ordering them to lay suppressing fire as Rau dodged the Linear Gun shells and drew closer.

As Rau began to draw closer to Mu, the mobile armor pilot suddenly aimed all of his weapons at the colony and began firing. The guns and missiles quickly tore apart the outer skin and the Moebius Zero rocketed into the exposed maintenance area layer, Rau in hot pursuit.

"Is this the best you can do Mu? Simply running away from me? Surely you have a plan?" Rau taunted Mu over his radio as the mobile armor pilot dodged machinegun fire and girders. Then he saw what he was looking for and muttered, "Going to have only one shot at this!" and fired all his weapons at a large airlock.

The airlock quickly crumpled as it was blasted apart. Mu placed the Moebius Zero's gunbarrels behind the craft and flew through the tight space. Rau also flew through, and that was when they both saw the mobile suits on the ground.

Mu was the only one to speak, "What the hell is that?" as he noticed the other mobile suit near the Strike prototype. Then the mystery suit began firing at Rau, "At least its friendly. I hope"

* * *

_Archangel dock area_

Lieutenant Natarle had finished the diagnostic on the battleship when she saw a truck with the hallmarks of a command vehicle scream onto the dock, slam up the cargo-loading ramp and roar into the hanger area. Several surviving soldiers watched as two technicians exited the truck, and slumped against the front of the vehicle, blatantly ignoring them.

"Damn that was different, I do not want to have to go through that kind of shit again." Jacob Oslo was trying to light a cigarette as Carlson Rogers quietly blew out smoke and nodded. "Knew I should've gone to Signals." At this Carlson laughed.

"You? Mister 'I am the friggin' king of special operations!' Yeah right, they would have kicked your sorry ass out of Signals faster than Leo takes to do calisthenics. Forget that man and besides, we made a promise with Leo remember?" Jacob nodded as he finally got his cigarette lit and took a long drag.

"Yeah Carl, I know." With that said, the two men sat there and kept smoking heedless of the soldiers staring at them. "When do you think Leo will get here?" Carlson shrugged.

"Not a bloody clue. Probably shooting something since he twitched out." Jacob nodded and went back to staring at nothing with Carlson.

Just then the ship moved, "Now what?" then they heard the harsh click-clack of rifles being cocked and saw the soldiers aiming their weapons at them, "Aw shit." One of the soldiers blinked, "Jay? Carl? What the hell are you doing here? And where the hell is Leo?"

Jacob and Carlson blinked in surprise as the soldier's lowered their weapons but Jacob spoke, "Buddy Howard? What the hell are you doing here?" Howard looked annoyed.

"I was assigned here you idiot! And you didn't answer my question, now where the hell is Leo?" Jacob and Carlson jerked their thumbs to the way they had come in, "Twitching out." Thomas 'Buddy' Howard; a red-haired American who perpetually wore aviator glasses paled, "Oh shit." A glance at the men smoking, "Shove over and hand me a smoke."

As the now three men sat there smoking, one of the other soldiers; a fresh recruit straight from the academy piped up, "What's so bad about a guy experiencing a little twitching?" So they told him, and the poor recruit was soon retching into a bucket while the older soldiers carefully shifted their service pistol holsters away from their crotches.

One of the soldiers turned to Howard, "They still need to be escorted to the bridge." Buddy sighed and nodded as he got up off the floor and motioned to Jacob and Carlson, "Come on guys, if we're going to go down we might as well have a hell of a view doing it."

* * *

_Colony interior_

Leo watched the ZAFT Mobile Suit chase the Mobile Armor and took aim with the beam rifle while sending a command to the pods with the control pad.

Rau Le Creuset sensed danger and put his CGUE into a series of spins and twists as beam shots from both the unknown Mobile Suit and its pods combined missile/beam cannon fire before contacting the Mobile Armor he was previously pursuing. "The situation has changed considerably Mu. Until the next we meet!" With that Rau pulled out just as the _Archangel_ blasted through the colony walls.

Onboard the _Archangel_, Jacob and Carlson had been escorted to the bridge when the battleship smashed into the habitat area.

The two quasi-technicians glanced at each other, back to the main window, at Buddy Howard as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, and then slumped their shoulders. "We're screwed" was the only thing they said as the _Archangel_ came to a halt. Buddy Howard simply shook his head and turned to the two men.

"Not quite. Carlson, go to the command vehicle and bring back anything that looks like a portable communication system. Since that truck's gear wasn't affected by the N-Jammer waves their using to block communications, we should be able to contact Leo and anyone else on our side." Carlson nodded and ran back to the hanger, while Jacob and Buddy turned their attention back outside.

"You think you can keep you end of the promise now?" asked Jacob as Buddy cleaned his glasses. The red head nodded.

"Leo's been there for us every time we've needed help. We owe to him to keep that promise. The only one whom we can't speak for is Jessica." Jacob nodded.

"True, so we'll just have to find her and ask her." Buddy simply nodded as he went back to watching the scene outside.

_To be continued..._


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Collapsing Ground Archangel hanger area, command truck 

Carlson quickly searched the interior of the truck and found a large suitcase labeled 'Field Communications Equipment' near the rear of the trailer, "This should come in handy, now to get back to the bridge." As he exited the trailer, he didn't notice a monitor display the status of Leo's mobile suit.

**CGMF-XN24N Chaos:**

**Status: red**

**Begin diagnostic…………………..done**

**N-Jammer Bypass System critically damaged.**

**Initiate auto-repair…failed**

**Initiate backup circuits…failed**

**Time until total system failure: T-minus 19 hours**

**Nuclear reactor heavily damaged**

**Initiate auto-repair………failed**

**Activate emergency power down…cannot power down, unit in combat.**

**Activate emergency containment…success, reactor contained.**

**Activate Mirage Colloid battery system…failed, reactor still active.**

**Initiate Pilot Alert…success, pilot alerted.**

**Logging report…done**

Rau saw the _Archangel_ fire missiles at him and dodged as they streaked by and hit the central axis, but was immediately hit by a massive blast of beam energy.

Sparing a glance behind him he saw the Strike holding a massive cannon as his damaged CGUE was sent hurtling into and through the colony wall. "Amazing. That such a weapon exists for a mobile suit."

Kira breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the ship that smashed into the colony land and heard a women's voice order everyone inside. It was over.

The mystery mobile suit was the first to enter and dock, but inside the mecha the pilot began shuddering violently until he jerked as though waking up.

"Whoa. What happened? Where am I?" Leo Kaji was a little confused as he looked around and saw he was inside the mobile suit he was investigating with Jacob and Carlson, "And what in the name of the Kami am I doing inside this thing?"

With a sigh he tried to remember what had happened but could only dredge up a fuzzy memory of how to exit a Gundam. Wait, how did he know what it was? Leo shook his head and decided to go with it. He went through the raising of the cockpit, activating the pilot winch and lowering himself to the floor of the hanger with an unfamiliar familiarity.

"What? A kid like you was piloting this thing?" This outburst came from Carlson, as he was the one of the first into the hanger so he could check on Leo. The revelation that the pilot who helped his friend out was a kid came as a bit of a shock to everyone. Nearby, Jacob and Buddy approached Leo.

"Leo, you okay?" Jacob was the first to speak as Leo came near. The pony-tailed soldier shrugged, "Think so. What happened? One minute I'm staring at that mobile suit behind me, and the next I'm climbing out of it. What happened?" Jacob and Buddy glanced at each other.

"You mean you don't remember blacking out?" asked Buddy of Leo. The pony-tailed pilot concentrated but suddenly noticed someone landing a Moebius Zero and exiting the cockpit, "Commander-sama?"

Jacob and Buddy turned and saw Mu La Flaga walking towards a brown-haired female officer, "Well this is a kick in the pants. I thought he was assigned elsewhere." Buddy shrugged, "We better get over there and report in. And stop Carlson from making an ass of himself." Leo heard this and snorted, "Then we've already failed."

The three men laughed as they got near and heard Carlson ask a brown haired teenager, "Are you a Coordinator?" When this was asked, Kira Yamato said, "Yes."

Suddenly every soldier aimed their rifles at Kira but stopped when the barrels suddenly fell off, as Leo Kaji blurred into existence next to Carlson holding a tanto, while the blond had his pistol aimed back at the soldiers.

"Ain't gonna let you hurt the kid guys." was Leo's cool statement as he reached behind his back and placed the tanto back into stuff-space with his other belongings. Carlson nodded firmly as he lowered the pistol but didn't holster it as one of the soldiers, the unfortunate recruit from earlier piped up, "But he's a Coordinator! That means he's the enemy!"

Leo calmly entered the Soul of Ice as he glared at the recruit; the air temperature lowering dramatically as the poor fool felt like the guy in front of him was glaring into his soul. The soldiers around him quickly took a step back and away as Leo spoke in a glacial tone, "And what if I decide you're an enemy?" Nearby Buddy and Jacob smirked nastily, something that wasn't missed by Murrue.

"What are you two smiling at?" asked the female officer, causing Mu to turn and notice the two men. Buddy and Jacob simply shrugged as Jacob answered, "Leo doesn't like it when someone is persecuted based on an unchangeable fact. That poor sod's going to get it now."

Mu frowned, "I don't think that would be wise you two. Snap Leo out of it and lets go take a look at that suit you found." Buddy and Jacob saluted sharply and walked over to the tense scene that was taking place; Buddy gesturing to Carlson to show him the command vehicle while Jacob drew alongside Leo.

"Come on, we have to give that mobile suit you found a once over." Leo nodded, gave an extra harsh glare to the recruit that made him piss himself, and followed Jacob to the docked mecha. All eyes were on them as they made their way to the mecha and the command vehicle nearby.

Kira watched the four men walk away and heard his friend Tolle ask, "Who were those guys?" Everyone turned to Mu as he kept a neutral expression on his face, "That's classified." Natarle however, wasn't satisfied.

"What do you mean 'classified'? They're just soldiers aren't they?" Mu's expression didn't change. "Yes and no. And it would be best if you don't ask anymore questions." The warning behind the tone killed any further questions, but it did raise them in people's minds as Mu turned and walked towards where the group had by now set up a number of portable computers and had cables running into the mobile suit.

Clustered with everyone else around the main monitor, Jacob brought up the mobile suits stats and they finally knew its name, "Chaos huh? Interesting name, but who made it?" A few seconds later brought up the design team names, "What the hell? There aren't any names here! Just letters with titles." Everyone face faulted.

Getting up off the floor Leo asked, "What do you mean 'letters with titles'?" Jacob glanced at him.

"I mean the names are only a letter, with titles like Doctor or Professor before them. I don't get it." Buddy shrugged and spoke as Mu arrived.

"Probably a security measure to protect their identities. Forget the names though, what's the status of the Chaos?" Jacob nodded and brought up the diagnostic report, then nearly fell out of his seat, "Holy Crap!" At this everyone crowded around the monitor and Leo nearly had heart attack.

Mu read the diagnostic report and nodded, "I thought as much." The others looked at him as he explained, "That mobile suit has been sitting inside that abandoned hanger for god knows how long without any regular maintenance or even giving the reactor some time to warm up and run for a few minutes. Combine that with the fracas Leo obviously got into with that ZAFT assault group and its no small wonder why this 'N-Jammer Bypass System' is practically burned out and the nuclear reactor nearly melted." He turned to regard the Chaos.

"Once we reach safe space, Leo will take the Chaos out and eject the reactor. The OS should then automatically engage this 'Mirage Colloid Battery-Generator System' and keep the MS active." Mu turned back to the monitor, "While I think about it, see if you can access any information on this Mirage Colloid battery." Jacob nodded.

"On it sir, I should have the information in a few seconds. There." Displayed on screen was a document labeled '**Test pilot guidebook: Mirage Colloid Battery-Generator System.'**

**The Mirage Colloid Battery-Generator System is designed to act as either a backup or primary power system for the XN24N Chaos. When active, the battery system emits Mirage Colloid particles that are then used to absorb light and other forms of usable energy to be converted into electricity and then used to generate hydrogen plasma to be stored in up to six Mirage Colloid Gel Batteries.**

The data then became scrambled and unreadable for several paragraphs until it arrived to the actual operation of the system.

**When in use, electrical currents converted from the external Mirage Colloid field pass through Mirage Colloid particle irradiated gel chambers in the front of the battery. This causes a reaction that creates hydrogen plasma to be funneled into a fuel cell pack at the back of the battery and is then used in conjunction with an ultra-compact plasma generator, allowing 172 hours of continuous operation per battery. Operation time can be extended by 9 additional hours through the activation of the Chaos unit's heat sinks.**

Jacob turned back to Mu, "That's all the intact data, the rest is too badly fragmented to be readable. Mu frowned slightly, "What about the design of the batteries? What are they made of?" Jacob shook his head.

"I can try and salvage what I can, but there's a good chance the data is completely gone. Not only that, we still need to dump the reactor into space." As this was going on, Leo was staring up at the Chaos as it stared blankly forward.

'Chaos huh? Seems only fitting with my life.' With that thought in mind Leo turned to the others, "I'm going to get some sleep, call me when everything's ready." Mu and the rest nodded as they saluted and Leo returned it, before walking away.

_ZAFT battleship Vesalius_

Athrun Zala sat on the foot of the stolen Aegis Gundam that was now his personal mobile suit typing up new code for the Aegis OS and modifying old code until it was unrecognizable from the old system. After finishing the code he closed the laptop and headed to meet with Commander Creuset.

Inside a briefing room, Rau Le Creuset watched footage of the battle against the Strike and the mystery mobile suit when an aide entered the room with a folder, "Here's the information we requested from Command. It's all they have on the unknown model."

Captain Ades nodded and glanced over the folder, reading a particular section aloud. "CGMF-XN24N Chaos, supposedly ZAFT's first serious attempt to create an advanced combat mobile suit with an ultra-compact nuclear fission reactor capable of bypassing N-Jammer fields. Abandoned due to circumstances unknown." Ades closed the folder and watched as Miguel signaled the withdrawal as casualties began mounting.

Miguel watched the footage of the battle with barely restrained rage; it was almost too much to bear watching his humiliation at the hands of those two mobile suits. As the video ended, Athrun entered and was about to make his report when Miguel stormed out of the room.

Rau watched the young pilot leave the room before turning to Athrun, "Let him go, he already received the order I going to give you." As Athrun gave him his full attention he continued, "You are ordered to either destroy or capture the Strike Gundam at your best judgement." Athrun saluted.

"I'll get the Aegis ready immediately." Captain Ades stopped the young elite from leaving with a hand to his shoulder, "I think you better sit this one out and let Miguel deal with his frustrations." Athrun frowned slightly but nodded.

In the hanger, three young men in the uniform of ZAFT elites watched as heavy missile launchers were loaded onto the GINN's assigned to the next strike on the colony. "What do you think will happen now Dearka?" was the question spoke by one of the young men. Dearka, a dark-skinned blonde shrugged.

"Orb will probably raise some noise over the destruction of a neutral colony, nothing that should concern us Nicol." Next to Dearka, an elite with pale blue hair snorted derisively.

"It's ridiculous for a colony to consider itself neutral, even one under Orb's control. Not even Orb can remain neutral forever." With that said, Yzak walked away just as Miguel Aiman entered his repaired GINN.

Onboard the _Archangel,_ Leo Kaji lay on his newly claimed bunk and inspected the Eye Of Poseidon as he held the pendant's chain. The jewel glowed brilliantly in the dark room and Leo sighed as he remembered his past.

"A martial artist's path is straight and fraught with peril, but a soldier's path is winding and fraught with death and despair." Leo tossed the jewel into the air and caught it as it came down, "I will get through this. I have to. My friends are counting on me. Counting on me to be a soldier." With that Leo Kaji severed his past and drifted off to sleep with a single thought. 'Ranma Saotome is dead. I am Leo Kaji.'

Inside the hanger area, Jacob went over the salvaged instructions to jettison the damaged nuclear reactor of the Chaos for inconsistencies. Nearby, Buddy and Carlson checked the communications equipment and made sure the command vehicle was secure and out of the way, removing portable radar filters and secure communications gear to be installed into the bridge systems. On the bridge itself, a meeting was underway.

"The civilians will be safe now that the shelters have detached from the colony. The emergency beacons will direct friendly ships to pick them up." Mu nodded at Murrue's statement but had a question, "What about the children on board?" Natarle spoke up at this, "They'll have to stay since they saw military secrets, and speaking of secrets." She glanced at Mu, "Are you planning on telling us about those soldiers?" Mu ignored her.

"ZAFT will try and attack us again when we leave the colony." Murrue nodded, "Agreed. Maybe we can use Kira as the pilot of the Strike unit." Natarle looked shocked, "You can't be serious! He's just a kid! Why can't Mu or that guy who piloted the other machine do it?" Mu shook his head and turned to leave.

"I can't pilot it and neither can Leo. That kid did something to the OS so that a Natural can't even make a twitch in that suit. That means he's the only one who can pilot it, so you'd better ask him since you're the captain." Murrue blinked, "What do you mean I'm the captain?" Mu glanced back.

"I may outrank you but I don't know anything about this vessel. That means you're the captain of this crate until we get back to Alliance territory. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check up on my mobile armor." With that Mu left the bridge. Elsewhere, Leo woke up and decided to find Mu so he could ask him something

_Vesalius space_

Miguel checked the charge on his heavy particle cannon as his teammates drew alongside him, "Aurol, Matthew. You two take the battleship but leave those mobile suits to me." As the other GINN's acknowledged, Miguel smirked nastily and increased speed.

On board the _Vesalius_, Captain Ades watched the three GINN's fly off when one of his crew suddenly shouted, "Captain! The Aegis is launching!" A few seconds later the Aegis Gundam rocketed off after the GINN's as Ades prepared to open a channel, but Rau stopped him, "Let him go, this might prove interesting."

_Archangel rec. room_

Murrue entered the rec. room and upon seeing Kira talking to his friends, began to approach. The teenagers noticed Murrue and went quiet as she stood before Kira.

"The _Archangel_ is ready to leave the colony. However, there are two things that must be addressed." Murrue turned her head to look at the other teenagers, "First off, we can't let you leave since you saw military secrets. I'm sorry, but you must stay with us until we can arrive at the Alliance headquarters at Alaska and speak with Alliance Command."

The teens didn't look happy but stayed quiet as Murrue spoke to Kira, "The other issue is the Strike Gundam. We would like you Kira, to pilot the Strike and help fight off ZAFT forces until we reach Alaska." Upon hearing this Kira frowned.

"No, I hate war and it's for that reason I came to Heliopolis. Because it was a neutral colony and it stayed out of the war." Murrue was about to respond when the door opened and Leo stepped into the rec. room, having heard everything. "If you don't fight, then you're friends will die."

Kira was shocked into silence at the cold tone in Leo's voice and the pony-tailed soldier continued, "You were once part of a neutral colony. That neutrality is gone, and now the only path is to fight. Unless you can fight then your friends will die and you will join them soon after, you will only live long enough to see your friends perish because of your selfishness." That got everyone's attention as Leo continued to speak.

"Don't like being called selfish? Then perhaps I should call you a coward. Unless you have a damn good reason not to fight, then refusing on such a flimsy principle as neutrality is the same as cowardice." Spat Leo as he regarded Kira with cold eyes, "If I die on the battlefield, it won't be because I refused to fight."

Suddenly an alert sounded and the ship's intercom engaged, "Captain Murrue! We have three contacts on radar. It's ZAFT! They're approaching the colony again!"

Murrue went into action immediately, "Prepare the _Archangel_ for departure and sound battle stations! Is the Moebius Zero ready for launch?" Suddenly Mu's voice broke through.

"Moebius Zero is still not ready for launch and Chaos; the other machine is offline due to damage to its reactor. The only vehicle we have left is the Strike." That was the last straw for Kira. With an audible mutter of, "You're despicable" he made his way to the hanger as Murrue took the insult in stride and ordered the attachment of the Sword-type parts to the Strike. Leo snorted and went back to bed.

_Outside the Archangel_

Another section of the colony wall exploded as Miguel led Aurol and Matthew through the hole, close behind the trio was the Aegis as Athrun moved to a safe observation point to watch the battle.

Miguel had a cruel smile on his face as he saw one of the mobile suits that had humiliated him earlier launch from the battleship that was…aiming its weapons at him, "Break formation! Don't let it get a lock on you!" Matthew was able to dodge along with Miguel but Aurol wasn't so lucky as a large turret fired and sent lancing beams through his GINN and into a portion of the colony, buckling it.

Miguel grit his teeth and took aim as he came to point-blank range, "Take this you bastard!" The heavy particle cannon should have annihilated the chest of the Strike but in his rage Miguel overcompensated and the particle beam smashed into and shredded a massive portion of the main axial shaft.

Kira took the opportunity and threw the beam boomerang weapon at the GINN. The weapon sliced off a leg and Kira dropped down, sword poised to deliver the killing blow.

Migeul Aiman could only look up as his alert indicator went off, the Strike slicing him in two with his GINN. As Kira jetted away, the GINN containing Miguel Aiman exploded as the two halves slid apart.

Nearby, Matthew was killed as the _Archangel_ fired its Valiant mk.8 linear cannons, the 110cm shells leaving neat holes in the GINN. But the pilot had already pulled the trigger and the mobile suit fired all of its missiles into the central core of the colony and effectively shattered it from the explosive force.

With a tortured shriek of metal, the colony began to break apart. Kira was about head back to the _Archangel_ when he heard a familiar voice say, "Kira?" Kira immediately turned on the comms and met with the face of his old friend, "Athrun?" There was a brief moment then they both asked, "What are you doing here?"

The Aegis and Strike could only look at each other, their pilots frozen in shock at seeing the other when suddenly a section of colony tore up and the explosive decompression sucked the Strike into space. Athrun watched for several seconds before lifting off and returning to the _Vesalius_, his only thought being 'why Kira?'

Onboard the _Archangel_, a yawning Leo Kaji walked into the bridge and asked, "Did I miss anything?" The only other reaction apart from the shocked looks was Mu rubbing the bridge of his nose alongside Buddy. "I forgot what it was like to serve with him." Buddy simply nodded and handed Mu a pack of cigarettes, "Yep."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Silent Run. To embrace a star stained void.

_Heliopolis ruins_

"Strike Gundam, this is the _Archangel_. If you receive this transmission please respond. I say again, Strike Gundam if you receive this transmission please respond on this channel." Kira didn't say anything as he watched Heliopolis collapse and break apart, unable to tear his eyes away from the wreckage of what was once his home as sections jetted flame and plasma into space.

As the young pilot finally turned to leave, a blip appeared on his radar. 'A rescue beacon? From an escape pod?" With that Kira changed course and headed for the pod. 'Damn, its spinning out of control! I'd better bring it back to the _Archangel_." As the pod spun helplessly, the Strike caught the object and jetted back the _Archangel_.

* * *

_Archangel Bridge_

Buddy listened as Mu spoke with Murrue, "What do we do now? We can't stick around here with two ZAFT battleships waiting." Murrue nodded and regarded a map of the region around Heliopolis, "We do have to leave, but our supplies are limited to going to either the Alliance Moon Base or the Eurasian Federation space fortress Artemis. If we guess wrong, we could end up starved and out of ammunition long before we reached our destination."

Mu regarded the data intently; "I don't think we'll be able to make it to the Moon, especially since we only have one operational mobile suit and the Moebius Zero."

A beep from Buddy got their attention as the redhead started speaking into a radio, "Yeah Jay? It's all ready is it? Good, I'll tell Mu. Send Carlson in with a bucket if he doesn't wake up." With a beep the radio was switched off as Buddy turned to Mu, "We're ready to eject the reactor. And Leo should be awake soon" Mu nodded. "Make that soon to be two operational mobile suits."

In Leo's bunk, the soldier in question was woken by a bucket of ice-cold water and a shout of, "Wake up man! You got work to do!" Carlson then ran out of there as fast as he could, thinking to himself, 'Why do I always get the crappy jobs?'

Wiping water out of his hair, Leo spared a venomous glare at the door as though it was the cause of his wet wake-up call, then muttered curses as he realized he had to get hot water, "Stupid pendant, the old ghoul should have told me you had to physically wear it, and that it only worked when you were awake. Bet she was laughing it up when I left." And so it was that Leo Kaji, now Mara Kaji made her way to the bathroom.

Back on the bridge, Natarle had a suggestion; "We could make our way to Artemis, I'm sure the EF commander will sympathize with our situation if we explain it to him." Murrue nodded, "It's a good idea, but we'll need to pull out quietly if we want to deceive them to our true direction." Mu nodded, "So it's a silent run is it?" Murrue nodded.

* * *

"Strike Gundam, what are you doing with that escape pod? Who gave you the authority to bring it back?" Natarle had noticed the Strike returning with the escape pod and had immediately opened a channel to Kira, who responded immediately.

"It was drifting out of control, I had to help the people inside!" Kira was getting angry, first he had to fight then he was told he was a coward, and now he was being told he needed permission to save people?

Natarle didn't bat an eye at the teen's frustration, "You can't bring civilians onboard the _Archangel_, they'll see military secrets and compromise us!" This time Kira was incredulous, "And what am I piloting, a worker pod? And what are my friends doing on board, vacationing? I'm bringing this pod in and you can't stop me."

As the officer and teenage pilot argued, Murrue stepped up to the comms, "I'll accept the pod under my authority. Bring it in Kira." Buddy snickered at Natarle's shocked look, "Things are a bit late to be worrying about secrecy now XO." The glare that was sent sent his way only made him smile wider until Mu cut in, "That's enough Buddy, go check up on the removal of the reactor." Buddy saluted and walked out of the bridge, leaving a fuming Natarle Badgiruel and an exasperated Mu La Flaga. "That could've gone better."

* * *

_Archangel Hanger_

Jacob watched as Leo carefully entered the cockpit of the Chaos Gundam, the instructions for removing the volatile nuclear reactor on the screen of the main computer.

"Okay Leo, the first thing to do is to disconnect the reactor from the main power grid. This will automatically engage the transport shielding and allow us to connect the Mirage Colloid Battery-Generator System as the main power supply. The reactor should then go into cool down and stabilize the radiation levels."

Inside the Chaos, Leo nodded and began the disconnection procedure, feeling a little better now that he was back in his birth form, and given Carlson a good punch. "When do we eject the reactor? We can't just leave it in here can we?"

Jacob nodded though Leo couldn't see it, "We'll eject the reactor in space before we leave." It was then that Buddy arrived and interrupted Jacob, "You'll have to do it now though, we're setting course for the Artemis space fortress." Inside the Chaos, Leo nodded and then fiddled with his ponytail, "So how do I get this thing started?"

Outside, Jacob, Carlson and Buddy sighed. Carlson reached for his pack of smokes as he said, "First he twitches out looking at the damn thing, then pilots it like he's been doing it for years, and now he asks us how to start the damn thing." Sighing, Carlson lit up a cigarette as Buddy shrugged. Nearby, the Strike returned with the rescued pod.

"It's like old times." Lighting up his own cigarette, Buddy went to the comms, "Check the Chaos for an automatic start-up program. And remember to memorize the sequence!" Inside the Chaos, Leo flinched and found the program marked 'Auto-start'.

Immediately he activated the program and began memorizing how the Gundam was powered up. The only difference to the procedure was a low whine and a message that signaled the activation of the plasma generator. The HUD now also displayed a power gauge, one that was nearly empty. "I'd better launch now if we want to get these batteries charged." Over the comms Jacob answered, "Roger, we'll start immediately."

* * *

While this was going on, Kira had safely delivered the escape pod and the civilians inside were helped out into the hanger. It was at this point that Kira found his robot pet Torii and, "Flay? Flay Allstar, is that you?"

Flay Allstar blinked as she recognized the voice of the person speaking to her, "Its Kira isn't it? Where are we?" Kira smiled reassuringly, "We're safe. We're on board an Alliance ship." Flay looked around and saw several men in Alliance uniforms around a computer screen, the mobile suit near them being loaded into the launch catapult.

Kira noticed where Flay was looking, "Those guys are a mystery. They only seem to follow the orders of a pilot called Mu La Flaga." He then shrugged, "Don't worry about it though, come on I'll take you to see the others." The two left the hanger as Chaos was launched to complete the jettison procedure and charge the batteries.

* * *

Outside the _Archangel,_ Leo landed the Chaos on the rear of the ship and prepared the final stage. Inside the cockpit, the pilot watched as the legged battleship engaged its engines and began to move away from the colony, then pressed a button.

With a silent flash, the locking bolts detonated and detached the reactor from the mobile suit. A section of the torso opened and with a distinct thunk felt inside the cockpit, the reactor was jettisoned into the void.

Leo watched the mass of inert nuclear material float away and then began the procedure to charge the batteries. Outside, the skin of the Chaos begins to shift visibly as light, radio waves and even static electricity was absorbed.

Inside the HUD read **'Batteries charging; 2 hours until Battery 1 is operational, 12 hours until all batteries charged' **as Leo stabilized the Chaos so it wouldn't fly off the ship, sat back and waited. Outside, the Chaos became completely invisible.

* * *

_Vesalius Bridge_

Captain Ades watched the colony collapse and turned to Rau, "What are we going to tell the Supreme Council now that a neutral colony has been destroyed?" Rau snorted softly, "Since when does a neutral colony develop weapons for the Alliance?"

Ades grimaced but nodded, "True, but we don't have any mobile suits left to pursue that Alliance battleship. Not to mention that they've vanished and we don't know where exactly they're going."

Rau thought for a moment then turned to Captain Ades, "We'll send the Gundams after them." Ades looked shocked, "But what if they get destroyed? Our mission was to recover them intact." Rau spared a glance at Ades as he turned to look out into space.

"We have the technical data from the units, so our mission is essentially complete. However, we still need to prevent the Alliance from securing the Strike once again. Therefore we will pursue and assault that battleship until we destroy it." Rau turned to the crewmember manning the sensors, "Where is that Alliance ship now?"

"We're not to sure sir, it launched decoy missiles all over the place. Wait a minute; we have a slight discrepancy in the jamming field. There! A line heading straight out of the field! Bringing it onscreen now." The main screen soon displayed an area of space that was a milky gray. But what was standing out was a thin, almost unnoticeable line that originated from the gray and made its way in a single direction.

Rau studied the data for several minutes and turned to Ades, "They're heading to the space fortress Artemis. The direction that they're heading in is not fast enough to arrive at the Alliance's Moon base and warn them. That means they have low supplies and three active units to protect the ship." Ades nodded, "I'll sound general quarters and have the _Vesalius_ and_ Gamow_ move to pursue."

As the _Vesalius_ began to move ahead of the _Gamow_, Athrun Zala lay on his bunk. The young ZAFT pilot's thoughts were focused on his friend Kira, and the friends he had lost in combat. As he laid there, the ship intercom engaged, "Athrun Zala, please report in to Commander Creuset immediately." With a sigh, Athrun got up and left his room.

* * *

_Archangel Cafeteria_

Kira's friends were currently talking about all that had happened to them, "Its almost to incredible to believe. I mean, Heliopolis is gone and its because the Alliance had secret weapons there."

This exclamation was made a by a teen name Kuzzey as they talked about the attack on Heliopolis. Another named Sai nodded, "Not to mention those soldiers. I don't know about you guys but it seems like they know more than they tell." Next to him, Mirialla Haw nodded, "You think that they're more than regular soldiers? What do you think Kira?"

Kira looked thoughtful, and remembered Leo when he was forced to become the pilot of the Strike, "I definitely think that they're more than regular soldiers. But the only one who could tell us anything would be that guy, Mu. They seem to follow his orders pretty closely."

The others nodded and were about to speak when Mu walked into the cafeteria, spotted them and walked over, "Kira, you're going to need to do the maintenance checks on the Strike yourself. We don't have the manpower at the moment to spare."

Kira blinked, "Since when is the Strike my responsibility?" Mu smiled, "Since you're the only one who can control it, that makes it yours." Kira was about to refuse when he continued in a more serious tone, "If you have the power within yourself to do something that will help then you should use that power."

He glanced at Buddy and Carlson, looking over some printouts while Jacob typed furiously at a laptop and the teens all followed his gaze as he spoke, "Those three have the power to help their friend and they're using that power."

He turned and regarded Kira, "You, Leo, and myself are the only three who can protect this ship and the people inside." Kira stared at the three men who felt eyes on them and stared back at them for several seconds, eyes cold as ice before returning to their work.

In that instant Kira shot up out of his seat and ran out of the cafeteria. Flay watched him leave in surprise and curiosity, "What's going on?" Mu didn't answer as he walked to where the three other occupants of the cafeteria were now looking at the data on the laptop so Sai and Kuzzey decided to explain.

"Well Flay, its like this…" Sai was about to begin when Kuzzey burst in, "Kira's a Coordinator! And he got his hands on one of the Alliance prototypes!" Flay blinked at the announcement and seemed to think about what she had been told.

Nearby Carlson snorted softly, catching Mu's attention, "Something on your mind soldier?" Carlson shrugged, continuing to stare at Flay, "I recognize her, George Allstar's daughter." Mu wasn't convinced, "You felt something in your gut didn't you?"

Carlson's face took on a non-committal expression as he looked away and regarded one of the printouts; "It's probably nothing Commander, just a herring." Mu wouldn't be mollified and pressed harder as his voice took on an audible edge, "What do you feel?"

Carlson resumed looking back at Flay and sighed, "She smells like death. Like she's going to get us all killed or get herself killed somehow." Mu dipped his head and sighed sparing a glance at Flay before turning back to Carlson, "Who knows soldier, you may be right."

* * *

_Vesalius, same time_

"Athrun, do you have anything to report on the last attack?" Athrun Zala sighed, then answered Rau's question.

"The pilot of the Strike is a Coordinator named Kira Yamato." Sensing the elite had more to say, Rau and Captain Ades waited patiently for Athrun to continue. "Kira…is a friend of mine. We used to live on Heliopolis, then I joined ZAFT soon after Junius 7."

Rau nodded sympathetically, "That is certainly shocking to discover. If you want, I can excuse you from the upcoming assault on the Alliance vessel, the _Archangel_ if intelligence is correct, the Strike is onboard." Athrun's eyes widened slightly.

"No! I mean…no. Kira is fairly naïve, its possible that the Naturals are manipulating him into fighting for them. If you let me participate in the next battle, I'm certain I can convince him to join us."

Rau listened to Athrun's statement and leaned forward, cupping his hands in front of him, "And if he doesn't join? What then?" Athrun looked down, as his thoughts and feelings conflicted. Finally, he clenched his fists and stared Rau in the eye.

"Then I will shoot him sir. If he doesn't join us in the fight against the Naturals then I will shoot him." Rau nodded, seemingly satisfied, "Prepare for combat then."

* * *

_Archangel Bridge_

"Captain! ZAFT battleship drawing parallel to us! It's a _Nazca_-class!" Immediately, alarms sounded across the ship as Murrue came onto the bridge.

"Bring the ship to battle stations and arm all weapons! Prepare the Aile parts for the Strike, prepare the Moebius Zero and the Chaos." As the last was ordered, Bridge Officer Chandra suddenly shouted, "We can't contact the Chaos! It's like it disappeared!" Natarle and Murre simultaneously shouted, "What!"

Outside the _Archangel_, Leo jerked awake and noticed that the batteries were fully charged. Switching off the Mirage Colloid field, the pony tailed pilot suddenly was assaulted by Natarle's screech of "Where the hell were you? We thought you had gone missing!"

Shaking his ringing head, Leo keyed the comms, "I was charging the batteries. And you didn't need to shout." Under his breath he muttered, "Uncute tomboy" not realizing the sensitivity of the comms, and continued to grumble about how he always managed to end up encountering crazy females as he activated the thrusters and maneuvered to the front of the legged battleship.

* * *

Back onboard the bridge, Natarle was shaking with unbridled fury as Kira encountered his friends in Alliance uniforms, "What are you guys doing?" Mirialla smirked.

"You don't think we're going to let you do all the work now did you? We'll do our part, you just concentrate on fighting." Kira nodded and made his way to change into a pilot suit.

Inside the hanger, Buddy activated several systems. A brain wave monitor, heart monitor and combat recorder activated in the Chaos but Leo didn't notice, nor did he notice the twitching of his left eye as his hands tightly gripped the joysticks.

But Buddy noticed and lit a cigarette, "Now lets see what exactly happens when he twitches out" was the soft statement as Leo's brainwaves suddenly spiked as adrenaline stopped flowing.

Nearby, Mu went over the battle plan with Kira, "Your job will be to keep those enemy mobile suits away from the ship. Leo will support you but don't bother speaking to him, he won't respond to your communications." Kira was confused, "Why wouldn't he respond?"

Mu looked thoughtful for a minute then answered, "Its complicated, so the only way to explain it is that Leo focuses on nothing but the battle, and that anyone from his squad are the only ones who can communicate with him."

As Mu said this, those who were listening to the conversation thought about this admission, and their thoughts turned to the other soldiers who came with the pony-tailed pilot.

* * *

The soldier opened his eyes once more, and watched as two units launched from the battleship it was now assigned to. A Moebius Zero was the first unit identified, then the unit his data dictionary now classified as 'Strike'. Nearby, the soldier saw a ZAFT _Nazca_-class battleship and brought the Chaos up to full power.

On the bridge things were tense as Murrue went over the tactical data. 'If we stay still then that other battleship will catch up, but if we engage engines, that _Nazca_ will easily match us. There's no choice.' Murrue turned to fire control, "Bring all weapons online! Fire a salvo at that battleship!"

The soldier watched as the legged battleship fired at the ZAFT battleship, then saw several mobile suits launch and immediately classified them as hostiles. Satisfied with the prospect of targets, the soldier engaged the Mirage Colloid field and began to move into position.

_To be continued...  
_


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Phase Shift Down. Destroyer In The Shadows.

_Space between Vesalius and Archangel_

The Strike launched with the Moebius Zero and saw the approaching mobile suits approaching at high speed. Mu immediately contacted Kira, "Try to engage only one target if you can, Leo will take care of the rest. I'm going to make a strike on that ZAFT battleship, take care Kira."

The Moebius Zero rocketed off and Kira followed its path, "Yeah, you too Mu."

The soldier listened to the conversation between his allies and began selecting targets. Three were chosen, Blitz Gundam, Duel Gundam, and Buster Gundam. The soldier moved into ambush position and chose the Buster as his first target.

* * *

Kira headed towards the other Gundams when one blocked his way, "Athrun." The Strike pulled out its beam saber and the Aegis responded as its pilot opened a channel to the Strike.

"Kira, we don't have to fight. We aren't enemies. I just want to know what you're doing fighting for the Earth Alliance." Kira narrowed his eyes.

* * *

Elsewhere the Buster, Duel and Blitz approached the _Archangel_ at high speed as Yzak spoke to Dearka and Nicol, "Dearka, you distract the battleship's guns while Nicol strikes from below. I'll provide backup for you." On the Buster, Dearka nodded, "Got it Yzak." While on the Blitz, Nicol chimed in, "Ready when you are, it should be…MISSILES! MISSILES INCOMING!"

The three mobile suits moved to evade but were each hit by the 'Helldart' missiles launched by Natarle. Yzak checked the Duel's armor and found it wasn't even scratched, "Nicol, Dearka! You guys still with me?"

The Blitz appeared alongside him, "I'm okay. But Dearka's under attack, so I'll keep the battleship busy while you help Dearka!" With that the Blitz rocketed towards the _Archangel_ while nearby the Buster was fighting an unseen opponent, dodging beam shots coming seemingly from nowhere.

* * *

"AARGH! Where the hell are you bastard!" Dearka was pissed, he couldn't get a clear shot at the battleship and something was trying to blast him. Pulling on the controls, Dearka forced the Buster to spin as he fired his 350mm gun launcher in every possible direction.

The soldier watched impassively as his enemy fired wildly in every direction, then flicked a switch as the HUD read, '**Mobile Armor Mode engaged**.' As the Chaos transformed it began to rocket straight down at the Buster, beam claws poised for the kill as the Mirage Colloid field dissipated.

"Dearka! Above you!" Yzak fired the Duel's beam rifle grenade launcher at the enemy mobile suit and increased speed. Dearka managed to look up and bring the high-energy rifle to bear. That was when Yzak's grenade hit.

The soldier didn't flinch as he was blasted off target, and effortlessly dodged the shot from the Buster's high-energy rifle. Whirling around the Buster, the Chaos lashed out with a beam claw and managed to rake it across the back of the mobile suit before the Duel forced the soldier to switch targets.

Yzak cursed as the enemy mobile suit deployed its pods and began attacking him, the pods harassing Dearka. "Damn it you Natural asshole! Stay still so I can kill you!" In response the enemy mobile suit fired another salvo of beam rifle fire and dived in with beam claws extended. It was only by a bare margin that Yzak avoided being cut in half as he fired his beam rifle into the head of the monstrosity.

The soldier took aim and fired, the damage taken inconsequential to his judgment. As he prepared to attack the Duel again, the Buster docked the high-energy rifle to the gun launcher and fired the now 350mm anti-armor shotgun at the Chaos.

Dearka watched the enemy machine dodge his shotgun blast and Yzak's attacks, before turning his attention to the pods as they began harassing the Buster again. "Dammit! Why don't you just die already!" was his furious roar as the pods dodged his missiles and fired their own. Just then the Blitz appeared.

* * *

Kira fired his beam rifle again as he tried to help the _Archangel_, but Athrun dodged and blocked his way again. "Get out of my way Athrun!"

"Why are you helping the Naturals Kira? Why are you fighting with our enemies? Why are you fighting with the very people who want us dead?" Athrun charged and engaged the Strike, beam rifle blazing as he tried to disable or force the Strike to power down.

The Strike dodged the beam rifle fire and rammed the Aegis, sending the Gundam flying as Kira continued to jet towards the beleagured battleship as it maneuvered into firing range of the ZAFT battleship. Suddenly the Aegis grabbed the Strike and tossed it backwards as Athrun shouted, "WHY ARE YOU FIGHTING? ANSWER ME!"

The Strike pulled out one of its beam sabers and charged, meeting Athrun's beam saber and locking them together, "I'm fighting because my friends are on that ship! I'm fighting to protect them and not the Earth Alliance!" With that, Kira forced the Strike to push back the Aegis and fired the CIWS at the Aegis.

Athrun shielded the attack and charged in again, trying to catch Kira off guard with the sudden attack. The Strike lashed out with its shield and knocked the Aegis aside as it tried to get close to the _Archangel_ again, but the Aegis fired its beam rifle and caught one of the Aile pack's wings and sent Kira spinning as the Aegis grabbed the Strike and slammed its shield into the face of the Strike's head repeatedly.

The Strike lashed out with an Armor Schneider knife and sliced off a section of the Aegis' head crest and kicked Athrun's mobile suit backwards, gaining some space. The two combatants locked gazes through their Gundams and tried to get air into their lungs, both breathing heavily. Then the Duel slammed into the Strike.

* * *

_At the same time, during the fight between the Aegis and Strike_

Mu La Flaga carefully moved his Moebius Zero through the debris field and found himself in the perfect position to attack the ZAFT battleship. Taking a few deep breaths, Mu powered up his weapons and charged the battleship.

The _Vesalius_ suddenly detected a blip on its radar and immediately began firing its CIWS at the mobile armor but Mu was already on approach to the rear of the ship, firing his gunbarrels all the way.

Several CIWS turrets were destroyed as the _Vesalius_ attempted to intercept the Alliance ace, the sensor officer shouting a warning to Captain Ades that the Moebius Zero was heading for the engines. Ades ordered the evacuation of the engine sections.

The Moebius Zero approached the engines and Mu targeted one of the outer ports and fired his weapons. The shells tore into the engine and detonated the fuel line, the explosion ripping a gaping hole where an engine used to be and sent the ZAFT battleship spinning.

Onboard the _Vesalius_, everyone tried to stablize himself or herself as the battleship began to enter an uncontrollable spin as alarms screamed across the vessel.

On the bridge the force of the explosion was felt there as crewmembers in the affected area were evacuated and exposed sections sealed.

One of the gunnery chiefs reported a misfiring in one of the two 120cm beam cannons, ruining a barrel and shorting out main power around the gun. Another reported three missiles had gone off prematurely and destroyed their launch tubes, causing a number of casualties.

Rau turned to Captain Ades as the crew worked frantically to stop the _Vesalius_ from entering a death spin. "Prepare to signal the Gundams to return to the _Vesalius_ for immediate withdrawal." Ades nodded and gave the order.

Satisfied he had caused sufficient damage to the ZAFT battleship, Mu turned his attention to the Strike and Chaos and headed to support them.

* * *

Yzak cursed as the monster mobile suit fired a barrage of missiles at him and he forced the Duel to dodge and shoot them all down as Nicol took the pressure off him and Dearka by getting its attention. That was the Blitz pilot's mistake.

Nicol had fired his rocket anchor into the back of the mobile suit, but that simply made it turn its attention on him, and lay down an absolutely scathing salvo of beam rifle and beam cannon fire at the Blitz.

"YAAH! A LITTLE HELP HERE!" Nicol was frantically trying not to get torn to pieces as the Blitz narrowly dodged the beam claws of the enemy mobile suit and fired his Trikeros shield's 50mm high-energy beam rifle. The shots glanced off the armor as the mobile suit brought its pods close and fired another withering salvo of beam energy fire in conjunction with its rifle.

Dearka docked the gun launcher to the high-energy rifle and aimed the 94mm hyper-impulse sniper rifle at the monster assaulting the Blitz. "Take this you bastard!" The sniper rifle fired and struck a section of armor, causing a dimple the size of the Buster's fist to appear in the armored shell, and catching the attention of the 'monster'. Dearka grimaced as it batted aside Nicol with its shield, but his eyes widened slightly as a section of the head pressed in and lowered to reveal the barrel of a weapon.

* * *

The soldier smiled mirthlessly as he aimed the Kallidus Kai multi-phase beam cannon at the Buster Gundam, and pulled the trigger.

Dearka saw the massive blast of beam energy head right at him, but felt as though he couldn't move as fast as he wanted. As the Buster tried to evade, the beam slammed into the left shoulder and destroyed the missile launcher there. The mobile suit was sent flying backwards into an uncontrollable spin.

"AAAAGH!" Dearka was slammed into his seat by the force of the impact and tried to stabilize the Buster when he felt another mobile suit slam into him and the Buster shuddered to a halt. Yzak however, was sent flying backwards into the Strike.

Kira span and slashed with a beam saber, but Yzak dodged and came in with his own beam saber. The Strike blocked with its shield but Yzak hit with such force that the saber cut into the shield. Kira pulled out the beam rifle and fired repeated shots into the Duel but Yzak had positioned his own shield against the rifle fire.

Unknown to Kira, the Strike's battery began to run dry as he used more energy than the Strike could replenish.

"Athrun! What are you doing? Help me destroy the Strike!" Athrun heard the transmission but stayed on the sidelines, the need to fulfill his orders conflicting with the need to give his friend another chance to join him.

* * *

_Archangel_

Murrue watched the battle progress and turned to Natarle, "Arm the main guns and send a message to Mu, Kira and Leo to pull out." Natarle nodded and gave the orders.

Inside the hanger watching the battle through Leo's eyes, Jacob, Carlson, and Buddy studied the brainwave data as Leo fought the Blitz and Buster once more as Jacob spoke. "Just like what happened at Casablanca, Nova, and Kaohsiung. These brainwave patterns confirm an alternate personality capable of independent thought."

Carlson looked over the data and concentrated for a minute, "Hey Buddy, have you seen these patterns before? Because I know I've seen these patterns before."

Buddy studied the data and nodded, teeth clenching his cigarette tight, "Hmm…yeah. Yeah, I've seen these readings before. In Jessica." Carlson nodded.

"So that's it then, this proves what Commander Mu suspected when Leo went commando in Nova. Someone did something to Jessica and Leo to make them this way." Buddy nodded.

"That's true, but it doesn't account for how Jessica goes into a bezerker fury with these patterns and Leo goes all cold and professional." Jacob shrugged as he leaned back; Leo had fought off the Blitz and Buster and was going to attack the Aegis, "Obviously its based on their psychological makeup. But we'll need to link up with Jessica before we can confirm that."

Carlson frowned, "Isn't she fighting with a resistance group in Africa? Desert Fawn?" Buddy shook his head, "It's called Desert Dawn, and they're supposedly rather good at ambushing ZAFT positions. But we better make sure all this data is being saved." Jacob smirked.

"Been recording everything for Commander Mu to review in private."

* * *

_Outside the Archangel_

The legged battleship moved and directly faced the ZAFT battleship assaulting it. The launch catapult doors opened but a pair of large cannons was raised into place instead.

On the bridge Murrue watched as the large cannons locked onto the ZAFT battleship, "Lohengrins, FIRE!" At the command, the Lohengrin cannons fired at the _Vesalius_.

Rau turned to Ades as the _Archangel_ turned to face them, "Evade now! We can't get hit dead on by those guns!" Ades barked the order and the _Vesalius_ maneuvered to avoid getting hit.

It was partially successful, as the beams streaked towards the battleship it moved out of the way but the Port side armor was shredded and several crewmembers vaporized from the Gamma radiation released by the meeting of matter and anti-matter.

* * *

The stolen Gundams received a text message from Rau to pull out. Dearka and Nicol were only too glad to fall back, but Yzak was a different story.

"Yzak! We have to pull out now!" Yzak heard Athrun over the comms but wouldn't be convinced, "Not until I've shot this mobile suit out of existence!" With that the Duel backed off and pulled out another beam saber.

The Strike Gundam continued to fire at the Duel when suddenly the lights went out and the mobile suit stopped firing, the armor becoming a dull gray.

Yzak saw his chance and rushed in to destroy the Strike when Athrun transformed the Aegis into its mobile armor mode and snatched the Strike into its claws. The other Gundams followed after the Aegis and its pilot.

"Athrun! What are you doing? Our orders are to destroy that mobile suit!" Athrun keyed the comms and opened a channel to Yzak, "There's been a change in plans, and I'm taking this opportunity to capture the Strike."

* * *

Onboard the _Archangel_, a message arrived from Mu, "Captain! Commander La Flaga is requesting the release of the Launcher parts." Murrue nodded, "Permission granted. Prepare the Launcher parts for deployment."

In the hanger, the three soldiers watched as Chief Mechanic Kojiro Murdoch prepared the Launcher parts for launch and shrugged. It wasn't their problem.

"Dammit Athrun let me go! Where are you taking me?" Athrun opened a channel to Kira, "I'm taking you to the ZAFT battleship _Vesalius_, so that you and the Strike can be taken back to PLANT." Kira gritted his teeth, "Let me go Athrun! I'm not going to set foot on a ZAFT ship! ZAFT were the ones who destroyed Heliopolis!"

Athrun clenched his teeth and took a breath, "Only because the Alliance were there. And if you don't come with me to the _Vesalius_, then I'll have to shoot you down." Kira snorted, "Why not shoot me now and save us the time?"

Athrun glanced away from the screen, "My mother was on Junius 7 when the Alliance launched the nuke that destroyed it. She was one of the casualties." Kira looked shocked, "Athrun."

Suddenly the Moebius Zero and the Chaos appeared from above and below, guns blazing at the Aegis. Several shots hit the claws and jarred the joysticks, causing Athrun to release the Strike who had now recharged enough to jet away.

* * *

Yzak saw the Strike fly away from the Aegis and immediately pursued it, beam rifle firing all the way. The Launcher parts suddenly ejected from the _Archangel_ as Yzak prepared to fire another grenade. Kira docked and aimed the Agni cannon just as Yzak brought the rifle up to launch the grenade. Kira pulled the trigger first.

The Duel was hit dead on by the energy blast and it was only because of the Phase Shift Armor that the mobile suit and Yzak weren't obliterated. The Duel rocketed away, trailing smoke as it did so. Several minutes later, the ZAFT battleship pulled out and the battle was over.

Kira sighed and entered the Archangel. The Chaos and Moebius Zero entered next, the mobile suit's pilot shuddering violently as the brainwave monitor recorded the resumption of 'normal' activity. Leo opened his eyes and looked around, "Not again."

* * *

_Vesalius locker room_

Athrun grunted as Yzak slammed him against his locker door, "What the hell was going on out there? How the hell did four advanced prototypes piloted by ELITES lose to a rookie pilot and that mystery mobile suit? I'll tell you why, its because of YOU Athrun, you made us lose the battle and humiliated us simply because you decided to capture the Strike instead of destroying it as we were ordered to do!"

Nicol shook his head, "That's not true Yzak, that unknown mobile suit was like a monster. It was too fast and too well equipped. Its not Athrun's fault!" Dearka remained silent throughout the exchange.

Yzak spared a venomous glare at Nicol and stormed out. Dearka left as well, leaving Nicol and Athrun in the room. Nicol glanced at Athrun, "You know it wasn't your fault we lost. But you still acted uncharacteristically." Athrun glared at Nicol through narrowed eyes, "Leave me alone." Nicol flinched and left.

Athrun looked up at the ceiling, turned to his locker, and slammed his fist into the locker door, "Kira."

On the bridge, a communications officer turned to Rau and Captain Ades, "Sir! Orders from High Command to return to ZAFT space immediately." Rau nodded, "Take her home Ades, we'll pick this up another time." Ades nodded, "Helm, set course for ZAFT territorial space and the nearest friendly dock."

* * *

_Archangel_

As Kira relaxed in the rec. room, Mu came up to him and stated, "The Strike's OS has now been locked. You're the only one who can pilot it." Kira nodded, "Right."

In the hanger, Leo was in shock at how he had piloted the Chaos. 'I did all that? Then why can't I remember it?' Shaking his head Leo turned to look up at the Chaos as the Jacob and Carlson called upon their training to repair the dimple the Buster had caused. 'It must be because of some stupid training technique Pops put me through, something to keep me focused on martial arts and not piloting a mobile suit.'

With a sigh Leo headed to his room to get some sleep. But in another room, Mu La Flaga went over the brainwave data and sighed, "Its just as I suspected."

* * *

_January 27 C.E. 71, battle-station Artemis_

"This is the Alliance battleship _Archangel_, requesting permission to dock at battle-station Artemis." The _Archangel_ had finally arrived at Artemis and waited permission to dock. Soon after, "Alliance battleship _Archangel_, standby for an inspection ship to lead you in."

After several minutes a small escort ship appeared to lead the _Archangel_ in, "I am Captain Biddulph. If you will please follow my ship in we can begin docking." As the _Archangel_ was led into dock, soldiers appeared and aimed their rifles at the ship.

In the hanger, Jacob sighed as he and Carlson began slipping several small cases into their uniforms and began checking the hidden pockets for bulging.

Sleeping in his room, Leo didn't notice Buddy slipping the same small cases into hidden pockets in his clothing since the redhead had no ill intent towards the pony-tailed soldier. Leo continued snoring.

"What is going on here?" Murrue was confused as the ship was surrounded. Captain Biddulph simply said, "Be quiet."

_To be continued..._


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Vanishing Gundam. Blood Stained Walls. 

_Battle station __Artemis_

Natarle watched as soldiers surrounded the _Archangel_, and turned to the comms, "Why are we being surrounded? We've done nothing wrong." Captain Biddulph regarded Natarle with a cool expression.

"We're simply taking precautions as your vessel isn't transmitting a friendly ID code. Your crew will be detained and you will be taken to meet the station commander."

The _Archangel_ was soon boarded by Eurasian Federation soldiers as the ship docked. Those on board were quickly led off the battleship and escorted to the base cafeteria. However, everyone noticed Buddy, Carlson, Jacob and Leo being led off elsewhere as were Mu, Natarle and Murrue.

* * *

_Artemis Brig_

"OOF!" Jacob was tossed roughly into a cell and heard the door lock click into place. Looking around, the soldier rubbed the back of his head and sighed, "This is not going to end well." Sitting down on the hard bed, he began pulling out the hidden cases as the Eurasian Federation guards walked away.

Buddy saw Jacob pulling out the cases and began pulling his out as Leo and Carlson followed suit. But Leo was having difficulty focusing.

Leo's hands were shaking as he tried to assemble the lock breaking gear, gritting his teeth the pony-tailed soldier willed his hands to stop and continued, an irrational fear welling up inside him.

'Dammit! Stop shaking and get a grip Leo! You're not going to be in here forever! You have to stay focused, don't let it get to you!' His hands kept shaking as he thought this, and as he battled not to lose to the irrational fear. Carlson held up three fingers and motioned to Leo. The others nodded.

* * *

_Artemis Command Room_

"I don't believe this. Who would think that the Atlantic Federation's top secret battleship would fall into my hands." Commander Gerard Garcia smiled as he said this and he smile widened as he glanced at a screen showing Leo and the others in their cells, not noticing the way Leo was shuddering visibly.

"Commander, the superior officers of the _Archangel_ have arrived." Garcia nodded to the announcing soldier, "Send them in." The soldier saluted and opened the door.

Mu, Natarle and Murrue were led in and were soon greeted by the base commander. "Greetings! I am the commander of _Artemis_ station, Gerard Garcia. It's a pleasure to meet you Natarle Badgiruel, Murrue Ramius and the 'Hawk of Edymion' himself Mu La Flaga." Mu frowned slightly as Garcia continued.

"I remember seeing you in action at Grimaldi, fighting off that force of attacking GINNs. So why are you here? And why bring your infamous squad here as well?" Natarle frowned, "Squad? What are you talking about?"

"Garcia smirked, "I'm talking about the squad of elite commandos he was given control of after the battle of Casablanca. A group of soldiers I now have in protective custody in the brig to ensure that nothing untoward happens." As he said this Garcia brought up the screen with Jacob, Carlson, Buddy and a shuddering Leo for the three officers to see.

Mu frowned as he noted Leo's shuddering, 'He's about to go beserk. I hope the others placed the cases in the pockets already or things will definitely be bad for everyone."

Murrue noticed the frown, 'What are you thinking about Mu? Something about that shuddering soldier has you tense.' Garcia continued unknowingly letting everyone see Leo suddenly stand up straight and walk to the door.

* * *

_Artemis Brig_

Carlson watched as Leo's eyes narrowed and the pony-tailed soldier walked to the cell door. Nearby Jacob put his plan into action, "Soldier! Over here!" It worked.

The soldier was about to break out when he heard someone call him. The soldier recognized the man as a comrade and saluted. In his cell Jacob returned the salute and continued as Carlson and Buddy finished putting together the electronics gear they were carrying, "Soldier, you have to finish that lock breaker kit so we can escape back to the _Archangel_." The soldier nodded and expertly assembled the covert cutting device used for escaping cells.

With a barely audible hum, the soldier began cutting the bars of his cell. Buddy activated a scrambling device and began tuning it to any cameras while Carlson began monitoring communications traffic across the base.

In his cell, Jacob finished putting together the stealth pistols he'd taken with him as the soldier finished cutting out of his cell. The soldier immediately began cutting the bars of the other cells while Jacob loaded the pistols and engaged the safeties.

* * *

_Artemis Command Room_

The screen cut out as Garcia bragged to Mu, Murrue and Natarle. "So what brings you and your squad of elite killers to my humble area of space?" Mu shook his head, "I'm afraid that's top secret Garcia. I don't have the authority to reveal my mission nor that of my squad. Besides we need to leave immediately once the _Archangel_ has been resupplied."

Murrue nodded, "That's right, we need to reach the Atlantic Federation Moon Base as soon as possible." Mu continued for her, "ZAFT forces are pursuing us." Garcia smirked arrogantly and brought up a display.

The screen showed the battleship _Gamow_ waiting a fair distance away from the battle station, "You mean those ZAFT forces? I wouldn't worry about that, this station's Lightwave Barrier Field, the legendary '_Umbrella Of Artemis_' is impervious to physical and ranged attack. The ZAFT scum pursuing you will not be able to penetrate this shield and will obviously give up. This will allow us to keep you here at our leisure."

Garcia motioned to a guard, "Place these three in a guest quarters so that they can rest up." The soldier saluted and motioned for Murrue, Natarle and Mu to follow him.

Inside the base cafeteria, Kira sighed as he leaned back and glanced at the guards, 'How long are we going to be here? Don't tell me we're going to be stuck in this place now.' Glancing around the rest of the cafeteria Kira sighed and tried to take a nap.

* * *

_Guest Quarters_

Once led into the room assigned to them, the door lock clicked into place as Mu collapsed into a chair, placed his head into his hands and sighed, "Somehow I knew that this wasn't going to be my year. I just hope that idiot's faith in the Umbrella is well placed or we're all screwed."

Natarle frowned and stalked over to Mu, "Alright, I want to know just what exactly that EF commander was talking about. Who are those soldiers? And what do they have to do with you?" Mu glanced up, "Do you really want to know?"

Natarle bristled slightly at the question, "Of course I want to know! Those soldiers are obviously more than plain infantry or mobile armor pilots. That much can be seen in how they work together. So just who exactly are they?" Mu stared at the ceiling, "Can I trust you with this information? Can I hold you not to reveal this to anyone?"

Murrue frowned, "Just how sensitive is this information? What are you going to tell us?" Mu glanced at her and looked pensive for a moment as considered the implications of what he was about to do, "Very sensitive. So sensitive that if you told anyone in the Alliance we would all be killed within eight hours of the leak. Outside of the Alliance and we would be dead in seventeen hours"

Natarle was taken aback by the statement, but wasn't shaken, "So tell us already." Mu sighed and began relating what he knew of Jacob, Carlson, Buddy, Jessica and Leo.

* * *

_Artemis Brig_

The soldier finished the cutting of the last bar and nodded his thanks as he received a stealth pistol. Jacob glanced around and began the next part of his plan, "Alright, the next thing we have to do is secure the _Archangel_. Since we don't have more substantial firepower nor the numbers for protracted engagements, we'll need to do this quietly."

As Jacob went over the route they would take, the soldier suddenly sensed something and headed to the end of the corridor and glanced around the corner. Two soldiers were approaching.

The soldier watched them approach, his eyes shifting slightly to a darker shade of blue as something else awoke inside Leo. Something that was far more sinister. Just as Jacob finished talking, he noticed the blood spatter on the walls.

"You know what? New plan. Let the soldier do all the killing while we take the _Archangel_ back." Everyone nodded as the soldier began hunting down more guards. As they followed the bloody trail Buddy glanced around and spoke up, "This isn't very cold or professional looking. Looks like someone let loose a mass murderer." Everyone shrugged. Not their problem.

* * *

It wasn't the soldier; it was something colder and far more ruthless. The soldier was weak; it was strong. It ripped open the throats of any that got in its way and destroyed communication's consoles as it went. It knew its orders, 'Clear the way. Destroy all resistance. Kill all enemies. Kill and Destroy. Crush everything. Kill everything. For a blue and pure world let no enemy live. For a blue and pure world let nothing live.'

As it slaughtered and sliced its enemies to ribbons, it remembered its allies following after it. They could defend themselves, they would follow, clear the way, kill everything. It knew its orders; it would follow them out to the letter.

Buddy noted the manner that the EF soldiers had been killed, "Clean slashes using a blade. No wasted movements, everyone died with a single stroke. In some cases, death was caused with some type of claw weapon." Carlson nodded, "We know Leo has a Tiger Claw weapon apart from that tanto. But he rarely uses it."

Jacob frowned, "Unless he goes berserk." Carlson and Buddy paled considerably as Jacob nodded, "Come on, we better catch up with Leo." With that they took off at a run down the blood stained corridors.

* * *

_ZAFT battleship Gamow_

The captain of the _Gamow_ regarded the data on _Artemis_ with a look of knowledgeable calm, "The 'Umbrella' system only goes down when no hostiles are detected or spotted by the fortress. Only a unit capable of penetrating the perimeter undetected can have any chance of allowing the rest of our forces to attack."

Nicol looked over the data and remembered one of the capabilities of the Blitz Gundam, "I know! I can do it. My Blitz has a Mirage Colloid system that will render it undetectable to their sensors." The captain nodded, "All right then, Nicol will infiltrate _Artemis_ and bring down the generators for the Umbrella."

The _Gamow_ reversed course, eventually vanishing from sensors as it retreated. Doing as they had been trained to do, the Umbrella technicians powered down the Lightwave Barrier Field and awaited orders from the sensor crews.

* * *

_Artemis Command Room_

Garcia regarded the data on the GAT-X105 Strike with barely disguised glee. The Atlantic Federation's top-secret mobile suit and their secret battleship were at his base! He was sure to get a promotion for this! And this other mobile suit would almost certainly turn the tide of war in the Alliance, then the Eurasian Federation's favor. As Garcia's mind played through all the awards and accolades he would receive, a soldier entered the command room.

"Sir! Our technicians have finished inspecting the battleship and mobile suits. They report no sign of ZAFT influence and have resupplied the vessel. They do however, report that the OS of both mobile suits have been locked." Garcia grimaced, "I see. Our main focus is the Strike mobile suit. The other can wait for another day."

Garcia then turned to the screens of the brig, unknowing that the cameras had been expertly scrambled, "I'm heading to the cafeteria to see which one of those civilians is the pilot of the Strike." The soldier saluted. "Yes Sir!"

* * *

_Gamow Hanger_

Nicol watched as the Blitz reported green across all systems and waited as the Gundam was moved to the launch catapult. As the back mobile suit was moved into position, Dearka and Yzak watched dispassionately from the observation room.

Dearka snorted, "This type of mission is more like this coward's style. Get in, attack and sneak away again." Yzak nodded, "Nicol always did prefer not to fight face-to-face. He'll probably encounter that monster suit again if he's not careful." Dearka snickered.

"Probably will run away crying for his mother when he sees it. Me, I want that mobile suit and its pilot dead. I want to be the one that kills him." Dearka clenched his fists as he glanced towards the Buster with its damaged shoulder partially rebuilt as crews worked frantically.

Yzak glanced to his Duel, the mobile suit now sporting a sizable dent on the torso as technicians and mechanics also worked frantically to replace the damaged sections of armor. Yzak's eyes narrowed slightly as he remembered who had defeated him, "You're not the only one Dearka."

Inside the Blitz, Nicol waited for the order to launch.

* * *

_Artemis_

It waited as its allies went over the plan to rescue its superior officer and the hostage civilians. It hated waiting, hated staying still as others were at risk. It wanted to kill, but its comrade needed everyone to listen to the plan. So it waited, listened and carefully polished its weapons.

Jacob listed the paths each man would take, then their assigned roles. Carlson would secure the _Archangel_ and the mobile suits. Buddy would rescue the civilians. He would rescue Mu, Murrue and Natarle. And Leo would clear the way for both Buddy and himself.

It heard its task given, and acknowledged its orders. It readied its weapons and ran off, already hunting down its enemies. It knew what it had to do, kill everything. It smiled and ran faster.

At the Cafeteria, Garcia entered with his escort and looked around the assembled civilians and crew. With an authoritative clearing of his throat he asked, "Who here is the pilot of the Strike?" This earned him some uneasy glances.

A crewmember, Arnold Neumann spoke up, "Why do you want to know who the pilot is?" Garcia glanced at him, "I wish to have a look at the mobile suit and for that I'll need the pilot to open it up."

Another crewmember, Kojiro Murdoch spoke up, "Mu La Flaga is the pilot of the Strike, why don't you ask him?" Garcia turned his gaze to the mechanic, "Because Mu isn't trained to pilot a mobile suit; he's only been trained to pilot a Moebius Zero." As he finished he sighed and glanced around, "I guess I need to take a guess then."

Whipping his arm around her, Garcia suddenly hauled Mirialla to her feet and was about to drag her off when Kira stood up, "Stop! She's not the pilot, I am." Garcia snorted.

"You? Only a pretty bad liar would claim that they're piloting a top-secret mobile suit. Why don't you take a seat?" Suddenly Garcia lashed out with a fist, only to be sent to the ground as Kira turned the energy of the punch into a throw.

Several soldiers grabbed Kira and Garcia was about to deliver another punch when Flay suddenly shouted, "Stop that! He is the pilot of the Strike and he's a Coordinator!" That got Garcia's attention as he straightened up and looked thoughtful, "Is that so? Well then, shall we go?" Without waiting, Garcia left the room with the soldiers dragging Kira in tow.

It knew that discretion was paramount and made sure that its kills wouldn't be spotted easily. The blood was a problem, but it didn't care. It followed after the base commander, waiting for the moment to strike.

* * *

_Archangel Hanger_

Kira was released and shoved in front of Garcia, "What do you want with me?" Garcia smiled nastily, "I want you to release the lock on the Strike's Operating System." Kira blinked, "Release the OS? Why should I release the OS on the Strike?"

Garcia continued smiling, "I want the OS released so that you can show me how to create a copy of this machine." He strode over and rested a hand on Kira's shoulder, "That way the war against ZAFT will end that much quicker."

Kira frowned and slapped away Garcia's hand, "I'm only a civilian, not a member of the military. I don't have to follow your orders, nor do I have to even cooperate." Garcia's smile dimmed slightly.

"That girl from before. She said you're a Coordinator. If that's true, then it's clear that you're a traitor to your fellow Coordinators. You'll never be able to go back if they discover that you've aided the cause of the Alliance simply by being here." Kira's eyes widened as he heard this, as the full implication of that statement hit him.

Garcia continued, "The Eurasian Federation isn't so blinded by hate that we would kill any Coordinator who deserved mercy out of spite. If you cooperate, then you can rest assured that the Eurasian Federation will protect you."

Signaling to a soldier, Garcia turned away, "Now then, get to work." A soldier shoved Kira forward as Garcia and the other soldier left. Forced into the cockpit, Kira began slowly unlocking the OS, hoping to buy some time for escape.

* * *

_Artemis Space_

Nicol held his breath as he flew the cloaked Blitz ever closer to the perimeter of the Umbrella. As he came closer, he rechecked everything and kept an anxious eye fixed on the alert indicators. Then came the moment of truth, he passed the perimeter and waited as the Blitz drifted forwards.

Nicol cracked open one of his eyes and sighed, he hadn't been detected. Engaging full speed, Nicol targeted the Umbrella's power plant array and fired.

The beam rifle shots ruptured the generators and _Artemis_ shuddered from the explosions. This unleashed hell inside the station proper.

* * *

The guards stationed outside the cafeteria slid to the ground with a quiet gurgling sound as blood leaked from their slit throats. Buddy calmly cleaned off his knife and regarded the others, "Lets go we don't have much time to get back to the _Archangel_." No one hesitated.

The group soon encountered Jacob, who was leading Murrue, Mu, and Natarle. Jacob turned to Buddy, "Carlson should meet us at the entrance to the dock. Leo should already be onboard the ship." Buddy nodded and cocked the assault rifle he had collected.

The combined group quickly navigated the corridors of the battle station. As they progressed, everyone save for Jacob and Buddy noted blood spatter, stains and in some areas, large pools of blood, as they got closer to the dock entrance.

Jacob quickly unlocked a locked door and turned to the others, "You might want to keep your eyes fixed straight ahead. It's a little messy beyond this point." Everyone except Mu wondered about this when Jacob opened the door and they saw what was beyond.

Blood was everywhere, corpses and pieces of them littered the floor and in some places were hanging from light fixtures. Jacob and Buddy led the group through the corridors, apparently not noticing or not caring about the blood dripping from the walls or how the floor was slick with the substance.

As the two men led the group through the corridors, Murrue could only say, "Who could have done this?" Buddy regarded a few headless or limbless corpses and simply replied, "Leo."

That got everyone's attention as Mirialla spoke up, "What do you mean 'Leo'?" Jacob turned his head but didn't slow, "He means the soldier who isn't here. The one with the ponytail. He did all this."

Natarle smirked, "A result of his going berserk?" Buddy and Jacob stiffened. They both regarded Natarle with icy expressions as Buddy replied, "So the commander told you huh? Better keep that information to yourself; else I'll have to kill you." In emphasis he fired three shots into the head of a wounded soldier as he begged for help.

Murrue watched the display with shocked evident on her face as Mu calmly said for everyone to hear, "Carlson is up ahead." There was Carlson, his face expressionless as he waited for them.

Carlson calmly regarded the faces of the others. The crew was shocked and some were looking a little sick, Jacob and Buddy were as cool as always. Mu was the only one who didn't seem to care about the décor.

Suddenly a soldier appeared from a corner and Murrue shouted a warning, Carlson simply placed the shotgun he had taken on his shoulder and fired. The soldier was launched backwards in a spray of blood.

Carlson looked at the others and quietly said, "Missed one." That was the last straw for Neumann as he started puking onto the blood-slicked floors.

* * *

Kira was about to kick the soldier out of the cockpit of the Strike when the soldier went flying, trailing blood as he landed with a sickening crunch on the hanger floor. Kira saw the pony-tailed soldier from before standing above him, blood dripping from a long knife.

It regarded the boy with curiosity. This was the other pilot? It shrugged and simply said, "You have a battle to fight." With that It left to start up his mobile suit.

Kira watched the pony-tailed soldier enter the cockpit of the Chaos. Then he saw the others entering through the hanger area as well.

Nicol blasted into the hanger and fired on several Moebius units that had been deployed to defend the base, "This is too easy. Something has to be up." Just then the Strike and Chaos launched from the docked _Archangel_, the Strike wielding the Sword-type parts again.

The soldier opened his eyes and immediately moved to defend the _Archangel_ as he saw the Strike engage the Blitz. As the battleship moved away from the dock, the soldier finished arming the Chaos' weapons and waited. Strangely enough, the soldier couldn't recall how he got into the Chaos.

"Take this Strike!" Nicol fired the Gleipner rocket anchor at the Strike but his expression became annoyance when the mobile suit fired its own rocket anchor and the deflected his shot. As the Gleipner docked with the Blitz's left arm, Nicol moved back and tried to draw the Strike away.

* * *

The _Gamow _came into view, the Duel and Strike launching towards the battle. Dearka and Yzak tore through the enemy Moebius units, but beam shots soon revealed the Chaos as the soldier armed the Kallidus Kai. Dearka saw the attack coming and dodged, firing his 94mm impulse rifle and 350mm gun launcher at the Chaos as Yzak charged in from above.

The soldier fired his shield machineguns and jinked away from the Duel, firing the Chaos' CIWS after the mobile suit. Yzak swore quietly as the gunfire raked the rear of the Duel and whirled around to aim the beam rifle. The beam rifle fired its grenade as the Duel rocketed away.

The Chaos swatted the grenade towards the Buster and released its pods to harass the Duel. Suddenly the Strike and Blitz rocketed past and the Blitz pilot fired the lancer darts from the Trikeros shield.

The slender, rocket-powered lances were deflected by the Strike. One was destroyed by the Chaos, the others spun aimlessly away. One of the spinning lances clipped a Moebius and sent it spinning out of control towards _Artemis_.

The five combatants were about to go at it again when they received messages to return. Dearka, Yzak, and Nicol returned to the _Gamow_, Yzak calmly waiting for his opportunity to come as he glanced back at the Strike and Chaos as they rocketed back to the _Archangel_.

* * *

Gerard Garcia watched as his invincible fortress came apart. The _Archangel_ and the Strike were slowly vanishing and he reached a hand towards the screen.

Just as the battleship vanished from sight, the damaged Moebius from before crashed into the command room and exploded. Gerard Garcia was reduced to ashes within seconds. Minutes later, _Artemis_ exploded and sent shrapnel and wreckage flying into the void.

* * *

Onboard the _Archangel_, Kira Yamato wept silently as he remembered Garcia's words and remembered his last conversation with Athrun as he was in the claws of the Aegis. On his shoulder, Torii could only chirp worriedly as the robot bird watched its master fall into a dreamless sleep.

Inside another room, Leo Kaji woke up and looked around, "What the hell happened this time?" Suddenly he was hit by the memories and curled into a ball screaming, "NO! NO, THAT NEVER HAPPENED! IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! NOT AGAIN! PLEASE NO! NOOOOOO!"

Outside the room, Jacob shook his head sadly as he heard Leo's muffled screams, "Believe it buddy. It happened." Turning to a grimacing Mu, he sighed, "He only remembers if he goes berserk. If it happens again, he could snap." Mu nodded.

"Keep an eye on him." With that, Mu left. Jacob watched him leave, turned back to Leo's door as the muffled screams continue and whispered, "Sir, yes sir."

_To be continued..._


	8. Announcement

Author announcement: 

Due to changing home situations, as of July 10th Chaos SEED will be updating sporadically due to the author undertaking the second semester of his tertiary education.

If this situation dictates that Chaos SEED be put on hold until as such time as writing can resume, then you the reader will be informed of this development.

Thank you for your reviews and reading.

_Gideon020_


	9. I Need Your Help

Ladies And Gentlemen, Valued Readers, I come to you with a request for assistance. 

Soon the Gundam SEED event called The Battle Of Orbit will occur, and with it the beginning of a plot thread that will dictate what pairing Ranma gets in the end.

I humbly ask you to vote for one of these four choices.

**1.** An NWC female: This directly affects the ending of Chapter 7: The Scar Of Space. Please state any NWC female EXCEPT Akane, as its been done to death.

**2.** Natural OC Character 'Jessica': The final member of Ranma/Leo's squad, and someone whose history has disturbing parallels to Ranma's.

**3.** Coordinator OC Character: The old 'enemy becomes lover' plotline, I have some names but I am open to suggestions.

**4.** Harem: Minimum of two characters, please state which females Ranma/Leo is being paired up with.

Please note that I am not confident enough to mess with canon pairings, so no suggestions for such changes unless you believe I can make it work.

I need at least a majority win of one vote to go ahead with a plot thread. Voting will end in six days after this message has been posted.

If you wish to send me a PM with your vote, then that is also acceptable.

Thank you for your time,

_Gideon020_

Update:

Voting is now closed, the results are as follows:

**1.** An NWC female: _**1**_

**2.** Natural OC Character 'Jessica':_ **3**_

**3.** Coordinator OC Character: _**1**_

**4.** Harem: _**10**_

Choice 4 is the clear winner, so the story will be structured as such. Stayed tuned for the posting of Chapter 7; The Scar In Space.

And if any of you were wondering as to my personal preference, it was number 4.


	10. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: I own all original characters. You can work out the rest._

**_Chapter 7: The Scar Of Space. A Life Within The Dead Monument._**

_ZAFT battleship Vesalius_

"Commander Rau, this is Captain Ades. We are now approaching ZAFT territorial space." Rau pressed the answer button on the intercom, "Thank you Captain. We'll be ready to leave shortly." Across from Rau Le Creuset, Athrun Zala blinked in surprise.

"We? I thought I was to stay on the _Vesalius_?" Rau shook his head; "You're coming with me to help me clarify a few things for the PLANT Supreme Council. I can't speak on your behalf since I don't know what you have seen." Athrun nodded as he accepted the information.

* * *

_Archangel_

"Well, the good news is that the explosion of _Artemis_ actually covered our tracks from that ZAFT battleship. The bad news is that the Eurasians only resupplied our weapons, ammunition, oxygen, and a limited amount of food as well as a very low amount of water." Mu went over the report on the _Archangel's_ supplies.

In the cafeteria, Tolle and Sai were speaking with Flay about what had happened at _Artemis_, "You're going to have to apologize to Kira about that outburst back from before. You could've gotten him killed by telling that commander he was a Coordinator!"

Flay glanced away as she remembered all to well what she had done, "I…Alright, I'll apologize as soon as I see him the next time." Then she smiled, "Now let's get something to eat! Its bad enough we don't have enough water to even take a shower without starving to go along with it."

* * *

_ZAFT Space, Shuttle docked with the Vesalius_

National Defense Chairman Patrick Zala waited as Rau Le Creuset and his son Athrun Zala were in their seats and the shuttle was away before speaking to them, "I have seen your initial reports and I have decided to cut out the parts concerning a Coordinator piloting the Strike and this mysterious Chaos Gundam. It would not do to have any breakaway groups supporting the Earth Alliance having any serious ammunition if word leaks out."

He leans back in his seat and looks thoughtful, "If everyone does find out, it would give our more conservative elements added reason to delay further military action. And that is something that cannot be allowed."

He looks out the window, "Its amazing that such a powerful machine, even one designed for Naturals to fight in, could exist at all. The Alliance has progressed significantly indeed regarding mobile suit technology. And the Chaos, who knew that an abandoned research project would be so effective?_  
_

* * *

_Archangel_

The food on board the runaway battleship had taken a turn for the barely edible; the only ones not choking on the 'cuisine' or complaining about water restrictions were the 'Commandos' as the crew and civilians had taken to calling them.

Leo calmly ate the barely edible emergency rations. Apparently the Eurasians had fully resupplied the battleship's complement of weapons and had installed better maintenance equipment, but they hadn't gotten around to stocking the food stores or water tanks. 'Hmph, reminds me of Akane's cooking…only its edible.'

The memories from _Artemis_ were still strong in his mind but Leo simply accepted them. He knew something happened whenever he blacked out but those memories hinted at something deeper. He sighed, catching Carlson's attention.

"Something wrong Leo? Don't tell you can't stomach this stuff, reminds me of Kaohsiung and that sabotage mission to destroy the mass driver control building and power array. The rations then were disgusting, this stuff's heaven compared to that."

Leo smirked, "What's wrong with raw fish and bugs? I know I used to survive just fine on them." Seated near them, Buddy shuddered.

"How you managed to even live past the age of twelve with that kind of scum as your father I'll never know. How did your mother let him get away with all of that?"

Leo shrugged, "I don't know really, Mom was always going on about honor but I think she loved me. Either that or she really believed all of that manliness crap she kept forcing me to obey and that fit in with Pop's plans perfectly. He always was smarter than he looked."

Jacob sitting across from the three snorted, "According to all of those intelligence reports, your father could have broken into every bank in the world and gotten away scot-free. Why didn't he though? It would have taken years before you could have paid off for yourself running a dojo."

Leo shrugged, "I never said he was smarter than he looked all the time. Besides, he preferred the easy way out to doing something involving actual work."

The four men took a bite out of their emergency rations and Leo calmly said, "This food reminds me of home." The others nodded and continued eating.

Kira entered the cafeteria and Flay approached him, "Kira…I'm sorry about what I said on Artemis. I didn't mean for you to get into so much trouble."

Kira smiled and shrugged nonchalantly, "Its okay Flay, everything you said was true regardless and I'm not upset over something that already happened." Flay smiled and thanked Kira before leaving.

The young Coordinator headed over to table and Sai noticed him, "Hey Kira, is the work in the Strike finished?" Kira nodded, "It was a little difficult since the use of the washers has been limited somewhat, but all of the necessary work is done."

He noticed the four soldiers, "I heard about what happened on Artemis from the chief mechanic. It is true?"

Sai, Tolle and Flay glanced over at the four men as they laughed about something called Jusenkyo and cat-girls. Tolle shuddered, "It's frightening how they can be so cheerful and then shoot wounded people in cold blood. And the guy with the ponytail was supposedly the one who did that entire massacre on the way to the Archangel with only a knife!"

Sai nodded, "They're more than they seem but what exactly?" Kira shook his head and turned back to his food.

"Whatever they may be, I'm just glad that they're on our side and that we can trust them." The others and those within earshot nodded as the four continued laughing unknowing that they had been the subjects of an important discussion.

* * *

_Archangel Bridge_

The officers discussed their next course of action with Helmsman Arnold Neumann. Murrue started by bringing up a map of the region of space they were in, "Our current situation is that we are on approach to the Debris Belt. Are there any suggestions as to our next course of action?"

Natarle indicated a path through the Belt, "We should take the fastest path available through the Belt and reach the Alliance Moon Base that way. ZAFT won't dare striking us if they catch up to use."

Neumann shook his head, "And if we do that, we'll end up as another shipwreck in there at our current speed. Its too risky to take that chance."

As the two officers tried to work out their best option through the Debris Belt, Mu had an idea and thought about it as he zoomed in on the Debris Belt, catching everyone else's attention.

Mu looked at the others and simply said, "I have an idea that should solve our supply problem." When he detailed it Natarle exclaimed, "What you're proposing is impossible!"

Mu smirked, "Then I guess I'm the man who'll make the impossible possible._  
_

* * *

_ZAFT Capital PLANT Aprilius One_

Rau and Athrun patiently waited as the elevator took them towards their hearing with the ZAFT Supreme Council. They noticed a news item about the one-year anniversary of Junius Seven and listened to a speech being given by Council Executive Siegel Clyne. Standing near the council member was a beautiful teenage girl with long pink hair.

Rau pointed out the girl, "Isn't that your fiancée, Lacus Clyne? Its good to see her attending that memorial service for Junius Seven."

He turned to Athrun, "Your marriage may have been arranged, but it will serve as a beacon of hope to the citizens of ZAFT in these dark times. In fact, I would go as far to say that the future of ZAFT and those born in the future is in your hands."

Athrun looked surprised, "Thank you for those words sir, they're too kind." Rau shook his head, "Not at all. But there is something important to be done for the next generation."

As the elevator arrived at the entrance to the council room, Rau calmly remarked, "It is our duty to do all that we can to protect those future generations." With that he left.

Athrun followed after his commanding officer, but he seemed unsure about those words recently spoken as the two entered the council room.

"This meeting concerning the collapse of the Heliopolis colony will now commence. Will Rau Le Creuset please give his report on the incident?" Rau stepped forward and prepared to give his report on the Battle Of Heliopolis_  
_

* * *

_Archangel Bridge_

Murrue waited as the students from Heliopolis and the four soldiers arrived at the bridge. Once they were all there she took a breath and began, "As you all know first-hand we are critically short on vital stocks of food and water. The situation is such that if we don't find supplies soon there is a good chance we could all be dead from starvation or thirst before we reach safe dock."

She brought up a map of the Debris Belt, "That is why we are going to conduct a salvaging operation from the numerous wrecked ships within the Debris Field in order to secure intact supplies from their holds for the remainder of the journey."

The students from Heliopolis were uneasy about this plan and Mirialla spoke up, "You're saying that we have to take stuff from all of those wrecked ships? I don't know if we have any moral right to do that. I mean, what right do we have to essentially loot those wrecked ships."

Leo shrugged, "There isn't anything immoral about taking supplies from those wrecked ships. Its not like the dead have any use for the stuff."

Mu nodded, "Its not a matter of morality, what we're doing here is a matter of ensuring our own survival. Taking the supplies from these wrecked ships is the only option we have to ensure that we can continue on."

Murrue sighed and nodded, "Mu and Leo are correct. We won't be taking anything of value such as personal possessions. We are only salvaging supplies for the Archangel so that we won't run out and face the risk of starvation or dehydration. The reason why you are all here is that Leo and Kira will be providing escort in the Strike and Chaos Gundams while you pilot Mistral pods to recover the supplies. It may not be pretty, but it's the only path we can take if we want to survive._  
_

* * *

_ZAFT Council Room_

"In conclusion, it was not the intention of the ZAFT forces to cause the collapse of the Heliopolis Colony. Rather, it was the intent of the Earth Forces and their mobile suits to destroy any evidence of their presence that led to the collapse of the colony." After Rau finished his report, Patrick Zala leaned forwards.

"May I ask Commander Le Creuset, if the sacrifice of the ZAFT soldiers assigned to the raid was worth it to recover those Mobile Suits?" Rau motioned to Athrun, who straightened slightly as Rau spoke.

"I believe that question can be better answered by Pilot Zala here since he is now the designated pilot of the captured Aegis Gundam. Athrun, would you report on the performance capabilities of the captured Gundams?"

Athrun nodded and took a few seconds to collect himself before beginning his report on the performance and combat capabilities on the Strike, Aegis, Duel, Buster, Blitz and the mysterious unit known as Chaos_  
_

* * *

_Debris Belt_

Leo cracked his knuckles and smirked at Carlson's shudder, "Geez Leo, can you not do that!" Leo shook his head while still smiling, causing Carlson to shake his head, "Whatever you jackass. Get ready to launch."

Leo nodded and finished the pre-flight checks before taking a deep breath, the memories of what had happened on _Artemis_ still fresh in his mind but he focused on getting out there and doing his job. He had been caught off-guard by the memories that was true but several hours of meditation and katas helped clear his head for the task at hand, even if his heart was still not completely in it, "Leo Kaji launching in Chaos and ready to move to escort position."

Mu nodded as his Moebius Zero launched alongside the Chaos, "Stay with the shuttles and myself Leo, let Kira handle anything that pops up on the scanners." The Chaos gave Mu the thumbs up signal as the Mobile Armor and Mobile Suit waited for the shuttles and Kira.

Kira launched in the Strike and saw Mu and Leo waiting for him and the others. Once the recovery shuttles launched, the black man, Jacob came in over the comms.

"There's a field of large debris approximately two klicks away ranging from devils 200 to angels 500. Take care, we picked up some sensor shadows that might indicate a patrol moving through this area." Mu came in over the comms as Jacob finished.

"Leo and I will cover the pods. Kira, you move to the location of the most recent sensor shadow and check it out. If it's a ZAFT patrol, then silence it. We can't afford to be discovered by any form of patrol, even if it's a salvage operation."

Leo suddenly came in, "Guys, I've found some wreckage. It looks pretty recent; the metal's still glowing around some of these holes. It looks like a pair of recoilless rifles was used along with a lot of missiles. I think there was a battle here not too long ago. Probably about 8 hours by my reckoning."

Kira nodded, "I'll head to the most recent sensor shadow and check it out. Keep me informed of any new shadows."

Jacob came back on, "Sure thing kid, I'll be your support guy on the sensors but you'll need to do the leg work when those shadows come up." Kira nodded and smiled when Jacob gave him a thumb up and a large grin.

The recovery pods with Mirialla, Tolle, Sai and Kuzzey followed after the Moebius Zero and Chaos as the Strike jetted off to investigate the unknown contact while Jacob helped guide Kira to the location amidst the debris_  
_

* * *

_Aprilius One_

Athrun sat down next to Rau after he had concluded his report on the Gundams and listened silently as the council began to debate further on the information. Eventually the topic of even continuing the war came up and the council was divided between those who wanted it to end now and those who were still undecided on the matter.

Only Patrick Zala was sure of the course of action that had to be taken, "This war must end with the complete capitulation of the Earth Alliance! Only with the Earth Alliance dissolved will we as a nation have no need to protect ourselves. If we end it now, the Alliance will press the advantage we will be quite literally handing over to them because we stopped fighting."

Patrick Zala glanced at each of the council members, "I know some of you are asking yourselves what is the reason we are continuing to fight, but I know the reason. The reason we fight is because it is the only way to protect our homes and ourselves! If we must fight to protect all that we cherish, then we have no choice but to fight!"

Several council members applauded Zala's speech but Chairman Siegel Clyne appeared to be slightly disappointed. He did not like where this was going, and what it possibly signified for the future_  
_

* * *

_Debris Belt_

The shuttle radios chirped as Murrue came in, "We went over the data and concluded that the best source of water is from a plant within the ruins of Junius Seven itself. Its completely frozen over so there should be no problem with recovery."

Kira, heading to investigate the latest shadow, balked at the thought, "No, we shouldn't be digging around in a place where so many people died. Can't we salvage enough ice from the wrecked ships?"

Murrue shook her head over the Strike's comm. channel, "I'm sorry Kira, I'm not exactly thrilled about ordering this but the ice from the ships is barely enough to fill our reserves, much less the main tanks onboard. We have to do this to survive."

"Damn it!" Kira struck a screen in frustration as Jacob came in over the comms, his face reassuring.

"Hey, hey. No need to be like that kid, we know about Junius Seven. Hell, I saw it blow up so I know the kind of loss that occurred here." Kira looked at the black man in shock, he was one of the pilots at the colony's destruction?

Jacob shrugged, "I don't deny it. I saw it shatter; I saw it fall to pieces. I know how much suffering I caused and I do get nightmares about it. But that's in the past, and frankly I don't dwell on the past that often. That's Leo's thing, not mine."

Leo came in over the comms, "Screw you Jacob! I happen to think that introspection is important to remembering why I fight." There was a beep, "What the…A sensor shadow? This close to us, it must be…" Suddenly there was an explosion over the comms and Leo growled, "Shit! A mobile suit! It looks just like the Strike!"

Mu saw the blue and white mobile suit and keyed his comms, "Leo! It may be another prototype from Heliopolis! Try and capture it if you can! If not, destroy it!"

The soldier-side nodded as it came to the fore, "Roger. Engaging target now." As the Chaos rocketed away, Mu followed its path with some trepidation, "So it's manifesting without a seizure now is it? Or is it because of the sudden shock?"

The Chaos wasted no time and fire its beam rifle at the unknown mobile suit, transforming to Mobile Armor mode as it did so. The mystery MS fired a ZAFT recoilless rifle at the Chaos but the shots were ineffective against the Phase Shift Armor as the Chaos deployed its pods to provide extra fire.

The blue-white MS wasted no time either and proved itself nimbler than the Chaos, dodging the shots with almost superhuman speed. The Soldier faintly remembered dodging flying bandanas that could cut through steel in the same manner, then narrowed his eyes as he analyzed the blue-white MS' movements.

The two mobile suits clashed again and again, the blue-white suit using ZAFT weapons to great effect as it fired the recoilless rifle repeatedly, using debris as weapons and shields from the Chaos' superior firepower. The Chaos and its pilot used the Mirage Colloid Field and began hunting the blue-white suit as a ghost.

The blue-white suit looked around, trying to get a sensor lock when the Chaos smashed a beam claw into its recoilless rifle, neatly cutting it in two. The blue-white suit whirled around and struck with an anti-armor knife, scoring the armor of the green and black MS. The Chaos pressed its attack, firing its beam rifle at areas that would disable the target as the blue-white suit began nimbly dodging.

The Chaos activated its Mirage Colloid Field again and the hunt began again. But this time the blue-white suit pulled out a beam rifle and fired at several rocks. The explosions sent dust everywhere, creating a large cloud. The MS waited and then fired as the Chaos' profile came into view as the mobile suit blocked the dust.

Chaos used its shield, and then fired its beam rifle again before charging at the blue-white mobile suit. Suddenly the blue-white suit lashed out with a kick but the Chaos used its beam claw and the leg was caught.

The blue-white MS struggled before the Chaos raised its beam rifle and it stopped, before holstering its beam rifle and raising its arms in surrender. The Chaos transformed back to Mobile Suit Mode and grabbed the mystery mobile suit by the arms before jetting back to the Archangel.

The soldier smiled, "Mission Accomplished." Mu breathed a sigh of relief, "Take it back to the Archangel, and make sure it can't get away." The soldier nodded and shifted the Chaos' grip to a more secure hold as it accelerated towards the battleship_  
_

* * *

_Aprilius One_

The council meeting ended and as the various council members left, Siegel Clyne approached Athrun Zala.

The young ZAFT soldier saluted the council chairman, but the older man waved it off, "No need for ceremony here, I'm not a military officer." Siegel sighed and smiled sadly.

"Just as you arrive, my daughter Lacus has gone on business herself. I'm starting to wonder if you two will ever see each other before the wedding ceremony." Athrun glanced downwards.

"I'm sorry that I didn't arrive sooner so I could speak with her." Siegel waved it off, "No need to apologize for something out of your control. Apologizing for things like that won't do you any good since you can't change the past."

Siegel glanced at a monitor showing the reports of Artemis' destruction, "Things are starting to heat up again. I can tell that the future is going to become very hectic."

Athrun nodded as he watched the report on the destruction of the space fortress, "Yeah, I think so too. Especially after what my father said."

Siegel Clyne looked a little perturbed at that, "I suppose so. Athrun, I do agree with what your father has said. But…" Suddenly Rau and Patrick Zala approached and interrupt Siegel's statement.

Rau glanced at Athrun, "Sorry to interrupt, but we have to go. The _Gamow_ has lost the _Archangel_ so we're departing in 72 hours to meet up with the _Gamow_ and continue the search." Athrun saluted and the two left as Patrick Zala stood next to Siegel Clyne.

Clyne glanced at Zala as they walked to a window showing the colony's vast metropolis, "I know you intend to increase troop numbers at the front lines. Considering the little time we have, do you think that is a good idea? Do you believe such action will have any good effect?"

Zala glanced back at Siegel and simply replied, "We're doing so because we can't forgive the Naturals for their despicable actions. So long as they're in the way, we will smash them aside and continue forging the path to victory."

Siegel Clyne glanced back at the city and the citizens going about their lives, 'I hope your right Zala. For all of our sakes, I hope you put us on the right path.' He excused himself and went for a walk to clear his thoughts.

As Rau and Athrun drove down the main highway with Rau at the wheel, Athrun watched the scenery and noticed the large screens mounted on the buildings playing a music video of Chairman Clyne's daughter Lacus Clyne. Athrun listened and watched in silence as the song of peace was played.

The students and civilians onboard the _Archangel_ quietly made paper flowers as several silently prayed for those lost on that fateful day.

Athrun and Rau arrived at a ZAFT base and the younger ZAFT soldier saluted his superior as he made his way to his quarters before sitting in the driver's seat and looking thoughtful for several seconds before coming to a decision and driving off in a different direction.

The students piloting the recovery shuttles and the Strike watched as another student onboard the _Archangel_ exited in a space suit via an airlock and entered the starry void.

The student committed a silent prayer before tossing the paper flowers into space, while onboard the bridge, Arnold Neumann simply said, "In memory of those fallen innocents. They who died and yet were not soldiers. Amen."

The other officers nodded solemnly and saluted the ruins of Junius Seven visible through the screens. Carlson, Buddy, and Jacob had their heads bowed as they remembered the scenes from that day.

Onboard the Moebius Zero, Mu also saluted as he watched the flowers drift into infinity. Onboard the Chaos, Leo did the same as he made his way with the unknown Mobile Suit securely in the Chaos' arms. Onboard the Strike, Kira simply watched with a sad expression.

Athrun stood before a grave, flowers in his right hand as his mind replayed everything that had happened to him. As he stood before the gravestone, his mind turned to Kira and his left hand clenched and unclenched unconsciously. He blinked and shook his head to clear the images before he focused on the gravestone and knelt to lay the flowers in front of the carved stone.

As he knelt in front of the gravestone, Athrun remembered his father's words at the council meeting. '**If we must fight to protect all that we cherish, then we have no choice but to fight!**' His father had said those words, and for the life of him Athrun could not work out why those words sent a stab through his heart when they sounded so right, when someone he respected so highly and knew the loss that had been suffered at Junius Seven had said those words.

Athrun sighed and stood up, casting a last glance at the grave before walking away to return to base. A name could be seen as Athrun walked away, _'Lenore Zala.' _

* * *

_Junius Seven_

Kira watched the recovery effort continue as he continued verifying sensor shadows with Jacob and listened to the soldier's stories about stuff that had happened when he was put into the same squad as Leo, Buddy, and Carlson.

Murrue listened as Jacob spoke about a reconnaissance mission that somehow became an evacuation of civilian refugees from Alliance artillery and Carlson's complaining about hazard pay as she regarded the amount of ice being brought in before turning to Natarle, "How much longer before we're fully stocked?"

Natarle glanced at her own console before turning back to Murrue, "We're good for another run after this." Murrue nodded and regarded Buddy sitting next to Jacob, "Inform the recovery mission that we only need one more run before we're fully stocked." Buddy nodded and opened a comm. channel to the shuttles.

Kira chuckled at Jacob's recounting of Leo being 'courted' by another squad member called Jessica when he spotted a ruined civilian ship, "Hold on Jacob, I think I've found the ship that wreckage came from."

Jacob was immediately all business, "Anything on your sensors? That wreckage was fairly recent and the Mobile Suit captured by Leo was using ZAFT weaponry, so there might be a life pod out there. Check the wreckage for any signals, that ship is on the fringes of the _Archangel's_ sensors so we can't pinpoint it exactly."

Kira nodded, "Roger, I'll get right…on it…" Kira's reply ground to a halt as he maneuvered the Strike behind an asteroid and watched as a ZAFT reconnaissance-variant GINN jetted out from behind the wreckage on a search pattern.

Kira watched in nervous silence, 'A ZAFT GINN? What is it doing out here in the debris field? Oh crap! It'll be in range of the recovery shuttles in a few minutes!' Carefully he targeted the mobile suit but mentally, '**Go away, there's nothing here. Just head out, there is nothing here. Go, go, go, go, GO, GO, GO!**'

As though his wish was granted, the GINN made to leave but suddenly a recovery ship came into range and it stopped before the Mobile Suit turned around and prepared to intercept the recovery ship.

Kira watched in horror as it came into view of the recovery ship and by sudden reflex, pulled the trigger. The Strike's beam rifle coughed once as the energy lanced out and struck the GINN squarely in the cockpit, destroying the Mobile Suit instantly in a bright fireball.

Kira couldn't breath as the full weight of his reflexive action sunk in, then the recovery shuttle contacted Kira, it was Kuzzey, "Thanks Kira! Man I thought I was a goner for sure! See ya back onboard the _Archangel_!"

Mu came on next as Kuzzey piloted the shuttle away, "Kira! I saw the explosion, what happened here?" Kira simply cut the communication, clenched his right hand into a fist and slammed it into one of the consoles with a wordless cry of frustration and anger.

As the young student turned combat pilot tried the stifle the tears threatening to escape, the Strike's sensors began beeping insistently as Kira pulled himself together and took a deep breath before focusing on the sensors. Then he blinked in surprise as he got a visual on a life pod.

The Strike approached the pod and gently grasped it in the Mobile Suit's hands before jetting back to the _Archangel_, Kira now sporting a small smile. He may have ended a life, but he also may have saved one as well. And that was all right by him.

* * *

_Archangel Hanger_

Natarle smirked slightly as she watched Kira gingerly set down the life pod with a feeling of resigned acceptance as everyone gathered in the cargo bay, "He certainly has a penchant for bringing in strays that's for certain."

Buddy smirked next to her as he watched the Chaos with the mystery Mobile Suit, "He's not the only one. Let's see who's piloting that little enigma over there."

The redhead made his way to where several soldiers, Jacob, Carlson and Mu were waiting for Leo and a mysterious pilot that was obviously female from the way the pressure suit displayed the curves on the pilot's body. Buddy smirked, "Well now, this should be interesting."

Kira exited the Strike and noticed the resigned amusement on Natarle's face before speaking in a cocky tone, "Should I have asked for permission to bring this one in too?" Natarle held up her hands in a gesture of surrender and shrugged and turned her attention to Chief Mechanic Murdoch who was fiddling with the manual override as the standard access panel was destroyed.

Murdoch carefully twisted several knobs and turned to the assembled crew as a loud hissing and gas escaped the pod, "Stand back, it's opening now." The crew took several steps backwards; many knew what happened if the pressure wasn't released correctly and formed a corridor in anticipation the door would literally fly off.

The door let out a squeal of tortured metal before falling to the deck with a loud crash as the security troops aimed their assault rifles at the gas-obscured entrance. Suddenly a pink ball with wings sprang out with a cry of "HARO!"

The troops and crew instinctively aimed their guns at the robotic ball and followed its path but relaxed slightly when it appeared harmless, before they heard a voice speak in an appreciative tone, "Thank you very much for rescuing me, I had almost believed no-one would have found me."

Everyone near the pod turned and several people openly gaped as a beautiful young woman with pink hair nimbly and gracefully exited the pod and the pink ball bounced into her arms as she smiled, "Thank you again for rescuing me."

Murrue was about to say something when a loud shout of "FIANCEE!" echoed through the hanger deck and caught everyone's attention as they turned to stare at Mu, Leo, Jacob, Carlson, Buddy and a young woman with short brown hair and a smug smirk.

Then Leo fainted and immediately several people ran over to see what was all the commotion about_  
_

* * *

_Several minutes earlier_

Mu studied the black-suited pilot along with the others before drawing his gun and flicking off the safety, "I suggest you take off that helmet. Now."

The pilot raised her hands and with click and a hiss the helmet was pulled away. And Leo let out a noise like a strangled cat as he saw _her._

Brown hair, brown hair, and a smirk that told you that she had the upper hand and was completely and utterly unafraid to make that fact clear to the entire world. Leo could only stare as his mind tried to get around the fact that an element of his past had now entered his life.

For her part, Nabiki Tendo's smirk grew as she said in a husky purr, "Why hello there Saotome. So good of you to finally find me after all this time."

Jacob and the others looked confused and glanced at Leo, Carlson saying the question that was on their minds, "Leo? You know this girl? And why is she calling you Saotome?"

Nabiki made a show of remembering something and spoke now with a smug quality in her voice, "Oh that's right, its Kaji now isn't it? My mistake, I'm terribly sorry for confusing you, and as far as knowing this fine specimen of a man? I'm his fiancée."

Leo fainted as the others shouted "FIANCÉE!" His only thought was, '**This is a dream, this has to be a dream. I'm going to wake up and it'll all be a dream. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF KAMI-SAMA! LET THIS BE A HORRIBLE DREAM!**'

Unfortunately, life was not kind as certain question was now in the minds of the crew while the pink-haired girl cocked her head in confusion at what was going on.

* * *

_To be continued..._


End file.
